Cirque Des Rêves – Bewley’s Cafe theatre @ Powerscourt – Review by Frank L.

Cirque Des Rêves

From Oct 17th – Nov 5th.

By Katie McCann – Directed by Jeda de Brí

Cirque des Rêves written by Katie McCann

The atmosphere is Dickensian, as a young girl wishes for some excitement in her dull, respectable and predictable life in a village in the middle of nowhere. Excitement arrives in the form of a circus which overnight mysteriously pitches its tent on the outskirts of the village. There is an array of suitably tawdry characters who populate the story.

On arrival in the theatre two of them, who are down and outs, with whitened faces and dressed tattily as “swells”, are chatting with each other at the front of the raised stage oblivious to the arrival of the audience. When the performance begins, they are joined by a village girl who is completely engrossed in the trivia of her life. Then they are joined by another who is definitely not enamoured of her dull and boring lot.  She longs for adventure. The arrival of the circus answers all her wishes. However given the black apparel of the cast, there is no secret that the plot will contain malevolent sequences and indeed it does. Adventure contains danger and she is confronted by all sorts of nasties.

The strength of the production is the easy way Clodagh Mooney Duggan, Finbarr Doyle, Kevin C. Olohan and Katie McCann interact with each other as they chop and change into a variety of characters. There is a collection of effective props such as Long John Silver’s parrot which is deliciously small. However the maximum use of stylised gestures gives rise to a polished piece of ensemble acting. The whitened faces and black costumes add to the gothic charm. It is all carried out for the delectation of the audience. In this celebratory vein, Katie McCann as a clockwork doll gives a fine performance. With the mechanism wound down, she is physically unstable, unable to keep her balance, but once she is wound up by means of a suitably large key, she mimics convincingly the jerky movements of a mechanised doll.

With Halloween, All Saints and All Souls just around the corner it is the time of year to enter into the world of melodrama and things dark. Bewleys Café Theatre and Illustrated and Sickle Moon Productions are wise to revive this stylish and fun production.

Starring: Clodagh Mooney Duggan, Finbarr Doyle, Kevin C Olohan & Katie McCann