REVIEWS

A new play by Garrett Keogh and the Irish Chamber Orchestra concludes its current season in Dublin.

Setanta Murphy Part One

Bewley's Café Theatre

Setanta Murphy, the harried but dutiful grandnephew to a cantankerous but sprightly 90-year-old, is a man seemingly out of his time. His name carries the echoes of an all-conquering Irish legend, his pronounced stammer invokes the vulnerability of another, while his first speech, couched in the playful language of a mock epic, aligns his tasks with the labours of Hercules. Short and bittersweet as it is, Garrett Keogh's affecting new play is certainly keen to impress one point: it's hard to be a hero these days.

Stripped of the gentle allusions towards mythology, Setanta's undertakings are more prosaic and real, yet as insurmountable as battling the waves. The sole relative of his granduncle Paddy Mac, who, in Garrett Keogh's hands, is a character in every sense of the word, he offers care and support but cannot repel the infirmities of old age.

As writer, director and co-performer of this two-hander, Keogh has created a vivid picture of a lively, lonely Dublin soul, his behaviour and mannerisms artfully balanced between the endearing and annoying. As Paddy's mind hovers between agility and dodderiness, there is something both amusing and painfully recognisable about his studied idiosyncrasies: his hanging jaw and expectant eyes, the mithered inflection of his voice, the avalanche of salt that rains down on every meal.

Though Keogh's attentions seem especially invested in this character, the completeness of his performance does not come at the expense of Luke Griffin's Setanta, who hits a believable register between stoicism and exasperation. The play itself is not always so focused, as though it too becomes distracted with senescence. Keogh's dialogue and observations are often sharp, but Paddy's incomprehension over a radiator or a bus route are more meandering than necessary, and the pace suffers.

He marshals its energies again, although for the play's cri de coeur, a moving display of trying to preserve dignity in the face of the health service and inadequacies of institutional care. Setanta's stammer, Paddy points out, only occurs when he is nervous about the future. To watch the eventual, heart-breaking distress in Keogh's eyes or the limits of heroism in Griffin's uncertain glances is to know the feeling.

Runs until June 7

PETER CRAWLEY

Tomes, ICO/Boyd

National Concert Hall, Dublin

Elgar -Introduction and Allegro. Mozart -Piano Concerto No 17 in G K453. Beethoven -Symphony No 7

Having presented this programme of top-quality music in Cork and Limerick, the Irish Chamber Orchestra finished its current season in Dublin. The British conductor Douglas Boyd has worked with the orchestra before, and this concert showed that they can be a potent combination.

One of the concert's strengths was the relishing of virtuosity in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. Although this performance's intensity was sometimes a bit on the edge, there was also plenty of subtlety, especially in the coloured contrasts between the small group of soloists and the full string group. This is a work that needs the audacity it got, for Elgar composed it in 1905 to show off the abilities of the newly founded London Symphony Orchestra's string section.

A different kind of virtuosity was heard in Mozart's Piano Concerto in G K453. Susan Tomes's playing of the solo part was neat, musically intelligent, subtle, and characteristic of a musician who has a high reputation as a player of chamber music. However, the orchestra did not always match the finesse of the soloist's phrasing and articulation. Also, while there was much to treasure, everything seemed so understated for the NCH's acoustic that I wanted to hear this performance in a much smaller venue.

Beethoven's Symphony No 7 underlined one of the most characteristic features of this combination of orchestra and conductor. Douglas Boyd tended to drive the music forward via strong accent and hard pulse. This is a commonplace practice of our time, but it also has an inexorable tendency to emphasise local character over long-term phrasing. On this occasion that was increased by an inclination towards clipped phrase-endings that, especially in parts of the slow movement and the third movement's trio, tended to detach phrases from one another and undermine their context.

In a work that manages to be at once terse and expansive, this proved a limitation to the music's expressive breadth and depth. What we got instead was a gripping performance of high intensity with occasional subtleties; and even the over-fast Finale managed moments of refinement. It was no wonder that playing of such in-your-face chutzpah roused the audience to a standing ovation.

MARTIN ADAMS