Robbie Doyle's new play, Lovely People, is the kind that holds a distorting mirror up to nature, showing us caricatures of life and people. It places on stage a northside Dublin family in all kinds of trouble, domestic and legal, and invites us to emote with them. Father is a hypochondriac, mother a termagant, daughter is just home after a prolonged absence following a teenage pregnancy, and the son is a minor criminal.
The first act goes straight for the guffaw, making liberal use of the Anglo-Saxon vernacular. It seems that the daughter is now engaged to an Indian medical student, a fact calculated to enrage her racist dad. The son has a good line going in stolen credit cards. A criminal on the run is hiding out upstairs, and a good-hearted if coarse woman neighbour adds to the hilarity.
But the second act turns bathetically serious. Dad and his criminal pal have a deep discussion on early hardships and influences, and it transpires that the latter was the cause of daughter's pregnancy. Other criminals with a grievance are lurking in the neighbourhood. The ending, which comes with a predictable bang, seems to have been pulled out of a hat, a random happening.
The acting - by Frank Melia, Una Crawford O'Brien, Gerard Carey, Anne Kent, David Mitchell and Sorcha Furlong - is committed and talented, and Tom Jordan's direction is in tune. But if the play's the thing - and it is - their efforts are in vain.
Continues to August 26th; to book phone 01-4627477
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