Triangles – International Bar – Review by Frank L.

Monday 26th – Friday 30th at 7.30pm

Triangles written by C.Smyth

This is a production by Sad Strippers Theatre. The programme under their name proclaims “Not actually strippers. Theatre company. Repeat, not strippers”. It further states “Sad Strippers’ work focuses on comedy and a desire to affect an audience. As in make them laugh.”

To soften up the audience on arriving, in the compact theatre space of The International Bar, a choice of homemade individual cakes is offered. A nice little touch. The three characters who arrive on stage are Chair (Laura Brady), Muesli (Meg Healy) and Bread (Ciara Smyth). The props include a variety of socks and some apples. A couple of minutes into the performance each of the actors don a couple of mismatched socks. Definitely no stripping here.

Bread is the dominant character who sets the tone of the various sequences which occur. She is a bit of a bully. Chair is somewhat down trodden but when allowed to express herself is deliciously ditzy. Muesli seems to have a more middle of the road personality and on occasions is even a man! They are extremely well drilled as they move swiftly around the stage on their various capers. One of their tricks is to repeat a sequence. It works well as it makes the audience feel that they are in the know.

A furious pace is kept up throughout. There is a lot of spontaneous laughter from the audience. The one criticism is that it is brief… just over 30 minutes in length. Smyth wisely has eschewed padding. She has gone for quality not quantity. Therefore there was a certain regret that it had ended so soon but quickly that disappointment was replaced by the contented feeling of having seen this daft, mad cap, off-the-wall piece of theatre.

Photo Credit: Aoife Herrity