Lockdown – New Theatre – Review by Frances Winston

Written by Gearoid Humphreys

Directed by Anthony Fox

The New Theatre, 43 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2 – 7.30pm nightly until October 10th – Tickets €15/12

This is set on the roof of the GPO, where a senior military captain Clodagh, ministerial advisor Stephanie and spin Doctor Harry debate the best way to acknowledge the anniversary of 1916. Each has their own agenda. Clodagh is still tortured by her recent experience in the Lebanon and feels that the occasion should be marked with military gravitas and respect. Stephanie wants to secure as much money as possible to make for an impressive spectacle while making sure that the “Shinners” don’t hijack the “inclusive” events and that the “animals” around Dublin city centre don’t hang around after it’s over and Harry… Harry just wants to side with whoever is of most benefit to him.

Set on a sparse stage with just an Irish flag to brighten the setting these three opposing characters trash it out as they all attempt to defend their opinions and beliefs. In doing so they bombard you with facts and figures. While I’m sure that writer Humphreys has checked all of these out there are so many of them your mind begins to boggle a bit.  The information is thrown at you fast and hard with the effect that you can’t keep track of it all. From a slow start suddenly this is firing on all canons and it actually becomes rather distracting in its frenzy.

While on the whole O’Dwyer and Coyle work well together as Clodagh and Harry, at times Dempsey as the snobbish Stephanie almost seems to be in a different play. That said all three actors took a while to settle into the roles on the night I attended and there was a lot of line fluffing and tripping over words. They all seemed most comfortable when they had a big monologue rather than an interaction with another character.

While this would usually be a bad thing since they are not supposed to be bosom buddies it does somewhat work here. Some of the best scenes are when Clodagh describes her experiences in the Lebanon and you engage far more with these than with the political back and forth that goes on for much of the play.

Director Fox has kept it pretty simple, employing few theatrical tricks and letting the actors tell the story which is a good choice. The writing is good on the whole but it gets very preachy at times and there are a few minor details that already date it and it also felt very time sensitive which made it hard for me see it having a life beyond the actual 1916 anniversary. Also, there is no real resolution and at the end of the play everyone is pretty much where they started out which is rather dissatisfying.

At 70 minutes with no interval this will leave your head spinning somewhat. With the anniversary of 1916 imminent Humphreys is clearly trying to make a point about how it should be honoured but it starts to feel like he is telling you rather than allowing you to form your own opinions. While I enjoyed most of this it did lose me at times and I think some tweaking of the political rallying and more character development (Stephanie in particular is completely one dimensional) could make this far more engaging.