Reviews

Irish Times writers review Fusion at the Helix Space in Dublin, a female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, the Ulster Orchestra at the Waterfront Hall and Declan O'Rourke in Whelan's

Fusion

Helix Space, Dublin

Team Educational Theatre Company has a new show, by Kevin Lavin, aimed at 16- to 18-year-olds. It opens with Clodagh (Aoife Duffin) doing her English paper, starting an essay on a turning point in her life. She writes about a day when she went to a music festival, and begins her story.

Jayo (Matthew Keenan) is Clods's boyfriend, suspended from school for fighting. He is an aggressive rebel without a cause, at odds with everyone. Nikki (Hilary O'Shaughnessy) is Jayo's elder sister, an ambitious woman bent on material success. She has a job in broadcasting and wants to mix with a more upper-crust crowd than that of her family and acquaintances.

Then there is Nikki's boyfriend, Alex (Will Irvine), a failed pop musician whose band has broken up and who is trying to put behind him a past of booze and drugs. He comes from a moneyed family, which may be the thing keeping him and Nikki together.

It all converges on the day of the festival. Jayo gets drunk and is outrageous, Nikki shows her hand and Alex begins to wonder.

Clods gives Jayo an ultimatum about school, job and attitude. Rather than lose her he promises to reform, but only Clods gives him a fighting chance. When she has completed her essay Clods tears it up and leaves the exam hall, bringing the play to an open-ended conclusion.

As is the way with Team, the audience is invited to complete it, and for one adult at least the portents are ominous. Clods is naive, Jayo derailed, Nikki destined for the bourgeoisie and Alex for the bosom of his wealthy parents - or are they?

Good acting, directed by Martin Murphy, and a script that rarely drifts into improbability (there is an iffy mock-seance scene) are right on their intended targets. Nice one.

Touring secondary schools

Gerry Colgan

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The Odd Couple

Andrews Lane Studio, Dublin

The female version of Neil Simon's comedy is almost as mirthful as the male-dominated original. True, it is funnier to watch a man obsessed with household chores than it is to watch a woman, but the premise is so strong that the comedy flows strongly throughout.

In the opening the poker game has been replaced by Trivial Pursuit, with a mixed bag of girls engaged in a battle of general knowledge. Enter hostess Olive (Oscar), a cheerful slob who still sends her ex-husband money. When Florence (Felix) turns up, having been ejected by her husband, Olive takes her in, and their odyssey begins.

The dialogue, substantially changed to accommodate the change in sexes, remains very funny, a cascade of one-liners. The characters and the structure remain the same, as Flo's multiple neuroses protect her against the protestations of her friends. She is secured in righteousness while they are afflicted with unreasonable guilt.

The comedy reaches its zenith when the two blondes from upstairs are reincarnated as Spanish men. The scenes in which Olive's planned night of bliss with them is wrecked by Flo, who hijacks the evening with a display of self-pity that wins their hearts and neutralises their libidos, are hilarious. Peter Prior and Paul McCorry are excellent as the men from Barcelona (where else?).

The lead roles are well taken by Colette Moran (Olive) and Catriona Connelly (Florence), and the supporting cast are also good. Laura Dowdall directs.

Runs until October 23rd

Gerry Colgan

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Ulster Orchestra/Braithwaite

Waterfront Hall, Belfast

Verdi - Overture, La Forza Del Destino. Duet and ballet music from Otello. Puccini - closing scene, La Bohème Act 1. Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut. Tosca Act 3

Evenings of operatic favourites can easily have a flavour of Your Hundred Best Tunes, especially when there is a presenter. In this case, fortunately, Noel Thompson's refreshing style kept things from getting too cosy, and the pieces were more substantial than usual, with a complete act from Tosca (minus some of the smaller roles but including the shepherd boy, sung by Queen's graduate Jennifer Bourke) and a complete scene from La Bohème, giving some idea of operatic continuity. The excerpts from La Traviata and Luisa Miller included orchestral introductions and recitatives.

Nicholas Braithwaite gave us a Forza overture that was somewhat lacking in intensity, but elsewhere he proved to have plenty of feeling for the style. Having the orchestra on the platform with the singers allowed one to appreciate details that can be lost when the players are in the pit.

But the success of the evening was down to the singers. Soprano Maria Costanza Nocentini has a pleasantly light voice, girlish enough for Mimì and agile enough for Violetta, if not yet full enough for Tosca. Tenor Justin Lavender (replacing Dennis O'Neill at short notice) sings musically and has a ringing top register. The basic sound is not especially Italianate, but he gave us a noble E Lucevan Le Stelle and an ardent Alfredo in the Traviata excerpt, and he deserves special thanks for singing the end of the Bohème duet as the composer wrote it, without the horrible high C that spoils so many performances.

Dermot Gault

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Declan O'Rourke

Whelan's, Dublin

Declan O'Rourke is not only on speaking terms with the business end of a six-string: he plays with his five-piece band with a fluidity that would be the envy of Flann O'Brien. Ironically, for a singer-songwriter, O'Rourke is least comfortable delivering his songs bare; he reaches boiling point when his band lope on stage, one song at a time, lending some of the subtlest guitar, blue note drums, bass, cello and violin you're likely to find this side of a concert hall.

His début, Since Kyabram, whispers of something special; his live performance shouts the same message from the rooftops. O'Rourke's opening trio of songs, none of which is on his début, bear an astonishingly close kinship to Damien Dempsey - before he learned to tweak his songs into shape. Loose and formless, this was a trio in urgent need of a producer's unforgiving gaze.

But from then on it was as if the wind had changed, and O'Rourke ran with it at his back all the way to the second, triumphant encore. His is a particularly cinematic music: lyrically obtuse and melodically cavernous, O'Rourke's songs cry out for dense arrangements.

Guitarist Jack Maher plodded initially but came into his own on backing vocals and in accompaniment to the gorgeous Marrying The Sea. Bassist Paul Moore created a languid, unhurried space for O'Rourke's songs while drummer Aidan Dunphy tiptoed and stomped as required, his jazz sensibilities the ideal hammock for Everything Is Different and No Place To Hide. All that was needed then was for Miriam and Michelle Mason, on cello and violin, to elevate the ensemble to another plane.

It's only a matter of time before O'Rourke is snapped up by a movie mogul unable to resist his sweeping soundscapes. O'Rourke is expected to appear with a handful of luminaries in the coming weeks. But he needs no support. He and his band are doing just fine.

Siobhán Long