Fishamble’s production of Silent is a one man show written and starring by Pat Kinevane that deals with some difficult issues in a humorous fashion. Kinevane plays Tino McGoldrick (named after Rudolph Valentio, the Silent movie star) a homeless man living on the streets of Dublin, facing up to his own alcoholism and depression. He tells the tale of how he moved from a man with a house, wife and child to his current predicament. It all sounds very bleak, but it is largely played for laughs, and a number of times it is not far off stand up comedy, as he interacts with a number of audience members in jovial fashion.

Kinevane drifts between characters easily, with his mother played by simply dropping the strap of his vest and altering his body shape or his wife by bunching his blanket up to form a hood and cloak, to create the variety of characters within the story. The empty stage is only filled with a black plastic bag filled with his belongings and a container for change, which is occasionally filled by invisible passers by, with a clunk and a thank you from Tino. The lighting creates the variation on the stage, with different shapes and spaces being produced by the spotlights from above, which he moves and often dances through and around.

Kinevane holds all the strands together with an impressive performance of this is a bitter-sweet story of a man that slipped down the gutter, and into a world where no one wants to be.

Silent runs until the 13th of October in the Ballymun Axis.