Sure Thing – Bewley’s Cafe Theatre at Powerscourt Theatre – Review

Written and performed by Jed Murray and Eric O’Brien – Review by Fran L.

Photos by Ste Murray.

Jan 04 – 23, 2016 | 1pm (doors at 12.50pm)

The action takes place in a betting shop which the actors create by their actions assisted from time to time by a video projected on to the back wall. According to the programme notes Ireland “is the third biggest gambling nation in the world” which is a somewhat disappointing statistic because if our politicians, bankers and property developers were considered gamblers Ireland was probably, in the very recent past, undisputed world champions. Gambling occurs in many locations not just betting shops.

Both of the actors play a selection of the regulars who frequent the shop. They are a motley crew. One of the characters Jed Murphy plays is a newcomer, an innocent, who has beginner’s luck. Among the customers Eric O’Brien plays is a guy whose life is dominated by the betting shop. He somehow remains an optimist that he next bet will solve his problems but he is one of nature’s born losers. There are no female customers. The only female is a good looking girl behind the counter.

Most of the time the two actors are playing the various customers but at times the actors speak in unison as when they describe some part of the jargon associated with horse racing; in fact the various descriptions of the state of the going on the racetrack sounded almost poetic.

The regulars in the shop have their highs and their lows and the newcomer retains a sense of balance as does the guy who does the dog’s body work in the shop. For him it is just a job which pays him a wage.

The play evokes the short term excitement that having a bet can bring but throughout there is an undertow that those who are there and who need to win are in a lonely place and under pressure. Trying to find financial solutions to monetary problems in a betting shop is a no hoper. This play takes a peep, in a mostly comic manner, at the nation’s obsession with gambling and betting.

Bewley’s Cafe Theatre – Jan 04 – 23, 2016 | 1pm (doors at 12.50pm)