Vulture – The New Theatre – Review
by M. Quinn

VULTURE by Jack Harte – Until 2nd of December

The Vulture in question is William (Ruairí Lenaghan), a hedge fund manager. He left Ireland many years ago to live in America and has been extremely successful in his work. He has returned to his old home town in the Midlands of Ireland. He meets with his school friend Sean (Eoin O’Sullivan), who is under pressure due to problems at work. There is talk that the bank is calling in their loan and that the factory he works for could go bankrupt. The plant is the lifeblood of the community and creates employment in a town that has little else. As the two old friends talk, it becomes clear that William hasn’t returned to visit relations, he has returned on business to close the factory.

The other two characters in the story are Stella (Laura McAleenan) who is the barmaid in the pub where the action takes place. She also works part-time in the factory and is involved with the worker’s rights. Mo O’Connell plays Gabrielle, a childhood friend of Sean and William.

This is a new work by Jack Harte, the playwright and novelist. Jack’s work has previously been staged at the New Theatre with Killing Grandad in 2020 and The Laughing Boy in 2021, amongst others.

The actions take place in a pub in a small town, and the set is relatively basic, as you would expect from a small production such as this. An unusual touch is that plastic sheeting is used to form the back wall of the set! The work is set in the 80s, with hits from the era played between the scenes, including Prince and Tears for Fears.

One surprising aspect of the production was despite all the characters coming from one small town, the actors all had different accents. It was explained away with a line in the text, but it did seem unusual.

This is an ambitious new work. It is rare to see a four-hander on stage in the New Theatre and each of the characters is relatively well developed. There are two elements to the story, with a personal or love story along with the tale of the factory. The piece comes alive with the story of the workers. The two main characters have differing world views, with William the cold-hearted capitalist and Sean seeing the importance of the factory to the community. It’s interesting to see the two individuals argue their perspectives on the world. It’s quite fitting to see this theme argued out in a theatre behind Ireland’s ‘oldest radical bookshop‘, which is named after James Connolly, ‘Ireland’s socialist pioneer and martyr’.

Writer – Jack Harte
Director – Andy Crook

Cast
Laura McAleenan
Ruairí Lenaghan
Eoin O’Sullivan
Mo O’Connell

Crew
Stage Management- Eva Walsh
ASM – Aidan Murtagh
LX design – Cathy O’Carroll
Set design – Martin Cahill
Costume design – Toni Bailey