Reviews

Irish Timeswriters review Testimonies at the New Theatre, Jason Isbel in Whelans and A Midsummer's Night Dream at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.

Testimonies, New Theatre, Dublin

"What could I have done?" asks a woman whose son has committed suicide. That unsettling question is shared by the three successive speakers in Smashing Times theatre company's affecting series of monologues, which tease out the agony of self-excuse and self-recrimination for those touched by such tragedy.

Based on interviews with people who have lost loved ones to suicide and some who overcame a suicidal crisis, each monologue delivers a portrait of depression, crisis and both the worth and limitations of counsel.

In Paul Kennedy's A Day Out, a young man (Sean O'Boyle) describes a fateful day with his best friend, Darren, pivoting between the euphoria of a U2 concert and the shock of his suicide. "I shouldn't have left him alone," he says, in a moving display of sorrow and anger, "but he was laughing, you know?"

A deep dormant depression is unlocked in Mary Moynihan's In One Breath when a once-imperturbable mother (Bibbi Larsson) begins suffering panic attacks, culminating in a suicide attempt. That her support mechanism comes in the form of reaching out to the Samaritans is an antidote to the threat of silence: her aunt killed herself, she tells us briefly, "but we don't talk about that."

The final monologue, Is There Anything We Can Do?, is performed as one side of a counselling session, with Margaret Toomey's grieving mother caught between the futility and necessity of looking for answers.

Monologues are the dramatic form of loneliness, but directors Ena May and Moynihan are here seeking a direct involvement with the audience. Each performance ends with a panel discussion involving the actors, counsellors and members of the Samaritans. Runs until April 5th. - Peter Crawley

Jason Isbell, Whelans, Dublin

Jason Isbell trades in a brand of Americana that in this day and age demands to be called Springsteen-esque. Formerly a member of the Athens, Georgia rock group Drive-By Truckers, Alabama-native Isbell was completing a four-date Irish tour with his band, The 400 Unit, promoting his well-received debut album, Sirens of the Ditch. The modest crowd that gathered in Whelans seemed to consist of a good number of Drive-By Truckers fans, as well as a few who were curious to hear his full-blooded rock.

He is simultaneously fresh-faced and jowly, and though not yet 30, his diet of whisky and cigarettes strived to give his voice the impression of oak-aged maturity. His material is not far from the brand of honest songwriting with which Band of Horses have forged their reputation, though it perhaps lacks the sparse sincerity of the Seattle band's output.

Indeed, some of his songs are reminiscent of Josh Ritter's earlier work, while falling short of the melodic dexterity and lyrical ambition that has become Ritter's hallmark.

With his four bandmates, Isbell launched into the sort of set that can only be carried off by an authentically blue-collar US accent, and his Alabama drawl certainly fits that bill. There were moments of Crazy Horse-style guitar workouts and an unexpected Neutral Milk Hotel cover, but at no stage did the performance rise above the predictable.

Ultimately, while Isbell's songs are exceedingly easy to listen to, they are frequently too generic to distinguish themselves from the competition. - Davin O'Dwyer

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Grand Opera House, Belfast

If we have learned anything from Northern Ballet Theatre's many triumphant visits to Belfast, it is to expect the unexpected. During the 11 years that he was artistic director, the late Christopher Gable took the company to unimaginable heights of creativity, encouraging dancers to think differently.

Since 2001, David Nixon has taken on the mantle, forging a spectacular palette of innovative new works, including this fantastical version of Shakespeare's maddest, most lyrical comedy, in which he pushes back the barriers to the ultimate distance, combining the utterly familiar with the strangest of dream sequences.

Nixon and his creative team have crafted a hugely risky dance-theatre collage, which, by dint of technical brilliance and meticulous attention to detail in performance, story, set design, staging, costume, lighting and music, works . . . like a dream. Kenneth Tindall and Georgina May, Tobias Matley and Pippa Moore are dazzling as the two pairs of young lovers, on whom Nixon has lavished the most complex and gravity-defying choreography. Runs until April 5th. - Jane Coyle