A Modest Proposal – The New Theatre – Review

Johnny (Jed Murray) is already on stage as the audience takes their seats. He greets members of the audience as they arrive, smiling and nodding. He’s wearing a sports jacket along with jeans and runners. It’s a smart casual look and he exudes a quiet calm. He’s giving a short lecture to the members of the board on a new product they are discussing, although his product is slightly unorthodox!

The original work ‘A Modest Proposal’ was written by Jonathan Swift and published in 1972. It’s a satirical essay that points out the benefits of poor Irish families selling their children as food to the upper-class members of society. The full title of the work is “A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick”. It’s a cutting satire of its time which aims to highlight the inadequacies of the welfare system. With our current predicament of the housing crisis and 1 in 7 children suffering from child poverty, it was ripe for an update.

The performance takes the form of a lecture, with Johnny giving a PowerPoint presentation on the topic. He works through the statistics of poverty and then talks about the ‘blue sky’ thinking that brought his team to their conclusion. There is no moral ambiguity in his proposal, and he can only see merit in their idea. He shows slides with pie charts, and various statistics and even takes a quote from Roy Keane!

Jed Murray does well as the confident, self-assured Johnny. He’s playing a businessman whose morals are more than questionable, and there is a Machiavellian air to his character.  The concept is obviously not new, but writer David Quinn brings it into the modern era, without indulging in as much modern business parlance as you would expect. It might have been an idea to add a counterargument or dissenting voice to the equation, but as it is we see the world through Johnny’s eyes. It’s an interesting update on an undoubted classic. Food for thought!

Writer – David Quinn
Director – Andy Crook
Starring Jed Murray
Lighting design – Cathy O’Carroll
Costume Design – Toni Bailey
Stage management- Eva Walsh
Image – Al Craig

Dates:
Feb 20th – March 2nd 2024
Tuesday to Sat – no matinees

Tickets €13.50 (group rate 10 +)
€17.50 conc
€20 full price