Traitor – Rough Magic Seeds – Project Arts Centre – Review by Frank L.

Dates – 4 – 5 December 2015

A reading of a new work as part of the Rough Magic Seeds showcase.

The action primarily takes place in 2026 with “flashbacks” to 2016. The grounds of a disused mental hospital was the site where a confrontation took place between the police and youthful left wing demonstrators.  A youth of some naivety lost his life in the events surrounding the confrontation.

Most of the site has been transformed into upper-end-of-the-market apartment blocks. However one portion has become a commemorative park in which a slightly larger than life statue has been erected to the idealist.

The characters include not only the idealist, but a liberated female firebrand who is on the verge of political power, a wily politician of the fixing-a-deal hue, a survivor who now sees the world from the perspective of pure mathematics and tattoos and the mother of the idealist. The story oscillates between the two dates but the obtaining of political power or failing to do so is the theme.

Mac an Bhaird has an ability to write punchy lines which create fine visual images and bring to mind commemoration parks, politicians both principled and unprincipled, naïve idealists and mothers of some sagacity. He also in the text creates more than one denouement of considerable strength… stereotypes are seen from a perspective which is not the norm. It is to be hoped that this play will receive a full production in the not-too-distant future.

Traitor  – Project Arts Centre