Buridan’s Ass – Bewley’s Cafe Theatre @ Powerscourt – Review by Frank L.
August 22 – September 10, 2016

Buridan’s Ass – Written by S.R. Plant

The title comes from a philosophical dilemma faced by a donkey placed between a bale of hay and a bucket of water. The animal is equidistant from both items and is equally hungry and thirsty. It must decide which one to choose. The tale is an illustration of the paradox of free will. In this world of indecision also lives Mahone (Michael James Ford), a third generation taxidermist of Russian descent, his surname having been hibernicized. He runs his business from a shop in Parnell Street in which he is assisted by one Ernest Blades (Ruari Heading), a young man of not great ambition who lives with his mother.

The action takes place in the taxidermy shop, so the stage is festooned with an unlikely collection of animal heads and skins and a substantial four legged beast, which transpires to be a badger, which is in the course of being stuffed as it lies on a table. There is another table on the other side of the stage on which Mahone seeks from time to time to stretch out as he contemplates his current predicament, namely that his business has more or less ground to a halt. The only current job he has is the stuffing of the badger. This melancholy state of affairs causes him to reflect on his past which is a fanciful series of unlikely adventures. Blades is a stooge who feeds Mahone lines and from time to time makes one line jokes.

The play made its debut in 2008 in Bewley’s Cafe Theatre and now is revived in this new production.  It retains its ability to keep its audience engaged as Mahone recounts a series of improbable happenings in which two strange and exotic women emerge as being of importance. It is all a bit madcap but no less enjoyable for that.

Credits: Michael james Ford and Ruairi Heading in Buridan’s Ass by SR Plant.

Directed by Iseult Golden

Photos by Futoshi Sakauchi.