The Full Moon Hotel by Philip Doherty

Smock Alley Theatre – Until Saturday 27th June at 7.30pm in The Main Space

This is a story with many strands all linked around a location, that of the Oak Fort Hotel. There are residents and people using the function rooms, there are staff and the owners, and all with their own complex stories to tell. There is a young woman waiting for her friends to turn up for her birthday party and a group celebrating a christening. There’s a young couple having a night out before they emigrate and another waiting to meet their friend’s fiancée for the first time. There is also a supernatural element, as a fairy queen returns to this mortal coil to take revenge for the destruction of the fairy fort which was located in the spot where the hotel now resides!

If the plot sounds rather complex, there is a reason. This is a new play by Philip Doherty, who wrote Pilgrim which was performed as part of the Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival last year. This new play was commissioned by the Gaiety School of Acting for the graduating class of 2015. The aim of a play such as this is to create a wide range of characters for the large ensemble cast to play. This production aims to showcase new talent and give speaking parts to the 19 member cast.

The stage features raised platforms at different levels. This adaptable stage allows for the variety of settings required. We get to see the events of the various rooms of the hotel, both front and back of house, and also to the fairy world beneath. There is more than a tip of the hat to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as the fairy queen decides to meddle in the affairs of mortals and move the story up a gear after the interval. One of the more enjoyable elements of the play is the use of music, with instruments played live on stage to fill the fairy world with noise and colour. The play doesn’t takes itself too serious and the young cast pump it with energy, never letting the story stagnate for a second. It is an enjoyable, fast paced trip through the inner workings of a hotel and far beyond.

Smock Alley Theatre – Until Saturday 27th June at 7.30pm in The Main Space