BRENDAN O'CARROLL'S second play is sure to annoy the snobs, but it's also guaranteed to entertain the crowd almost as much as its wildly successful predecessor, The Course.
Once again, O'Carroll goes for the cheap laugh, peppering his script with flatulent lavatory humour and throwing in plenty of f-words to pump up the dialogue; and, once again, the narrative drive is sacrificed to the name of a good gag.
The story, for what it is, revolves around a group of elderly people living in a heavily-regimented retirement home; O'Carroll, playing the part of Charlie, creaked around "God's waiting room" with his fellow OAPs, Mike Pyatt as Monty, Claire Mullen as Elsi Esther Dooley as Tess, Gerard Browne as Pius and Martin Dempsey as Grandad.
There's nothing like a good "shite" joke to get things off to a flying start, and before we even know the character we're already laughing like Father Jack in the ladies' loo. Who cares if Lilly's still alive - we just want to know when the next double entendre is coming.
To alleviate their boredom, the elderly group decide to stage a play, and the most hilarious gag of the night is provided when Tess chooses the famous interrogation room scene from a certain raunchy Hollywood thriller as her audition reading.
After that humorous high point there's little left to do except move the story to its inevitable happy ending, in which the residents of the home regain their lost dignity, lake revenge on their tormentors, and finally fulfil their broken dreams. Instead of a fizzy, effervescent finale, O'Carroll offers a warm-hearted cup of Ovaltime, and although Grandad's Sure Lilly's Still Alive trots out all the required cliches of a sitcom pilot, it seems to have one foot in the grave.
