Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Cracking male banter gives way to seeping sadness in John O’Donovan’s play about three men grieving for their friend
Tripping on drugs, 17-year-old Liam lies down on an empty road and sees his future flash before him. In John O’Donovan’s intricately structured new play for One Duck Theatre, the mystery of Liam’s final hours on a summer’s night in County Clare brings his three best friends together but also threatens to push them apart. In an empty shack on the edge of town, Cusack (Conor Madden), Barry (Colin Campbell) and Pa (Rhys Dunlop) gather to mark the 17th anniversary of Liam’s death. Playing a comically elaborate darts and drinking game, they tear through the cans and cocaine.
This could be a regression to their youthful selves for one night, but director Thomas Martin’s sensitive staging suggests a sense of arrested development; as if their bereavement is something they can’t get past. As in O’Donovan’s previous work, cracking male banter shifts into another mode, self-aware and raw.
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