Everything is Grand and I’m Completely Okay – IDGTF – Review
by Gearóid O’Byrne

Written and performed by Conor Burke and directed by IFTA nominee Lesley Conroy and originally developed with the support of the Dublin Fringe Festival, this is a new play about growing up, and the lessons we learn along the way.

The solo show introduces us to Malachy who has just turned 25. He works as a customer support advisor in a call centre at a bin disposal company with his best friend Pauline.

Malachy is taking stock of his life. He’s already coped with a lot including coming out as gay and trying to deal with the death of his brother.

Malachy is an utterly believable character whose musings on his life have been distilled into a list of “25 Things You Only Realise When You Turn 25” and he shares this list with us, item by item, with accompanying stories and vignettes. Some are very amusing such as the complaint calls he has to deal with at the call centre, others are much more poignant, revealing his inner vulnerabilities. Life, at 25, has not quite turned out how he might have imagined say, ten years earlier.

Conor Burke is an accomplished performer with a very fine sense of timing, and his use of dramatic pauses is particularly arresting. With elements of both stand-up and observational comedy, this is an engaging performance that makes us feel warmth and sympathy for the young man portrayed on stage.

“Everything is Grand and I’m Completely Okay” is running until 13 May 2023 at 21:00 with a matinee on 13 May 2023 at  16.00, at the Ireland Institute, 27 Pearse St, Dublin 2, D02 KO37