Reviews

Irish Times critics review the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, Chang, Northern Sinfonia/Stern, Tadhg Stray Wandered In and The Sunshine Boys.

RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet

NCH, Dublin

Shostakovich - Quartet No 9.

John Kinsella - Quartet No 2.

John Kinsella has composed four string quartets, and for this programme in the Horizons series he chose the second. It dates from 1968, just four years after Shostakovich completed his ninth.

The programme note for the Shostakovich hit the nail on the head about that work, and stands as a compositional manifesto for Kinsella, who admires the Russian composer's "control and sense of purpose and the sure forward momentum of the composer's thought, aided by a flawless technique."

The Shostakovich is in four movements played continuously, with superb control of the transitions between movements and of the development and contrast of material. Likewise, the outer pairs of movements in the Kinsella are played continuously. While the latter work is no imitation of the former, it does share similar values and techniques.

As much as any chamber music by Kinsella that I have heard, the String Quartet No. 2 embodies his concern for technique and continuity. It uses 12-note serialism to create textures that have few of the forbidding qualities associated with that method. One of the reasons for its accessibility is that the 12-note row is used to create small, distinctive motifs, amenable to variation without losing identity even when the texture is contrapuntally dense.

Another reason is the strongly periodic phrase structure, which gives a secure sense of pace to the accumulation and release of tension.

The RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet was on strong form. Both works came across with a fiery certainty that made these performances persuasive and, in the Kinsella, epitomised one of his own declarations: "Generally speaking, my style is very bold, but it has not the slightest tendency to subvert any of the constituent elements of art." Series concludes on Tuesday at 1.05, with music by Fergus Johnston and Lutoslawski, played by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra with conductor David Brophy.

Martin Adams

Chang,

Northern Sinfonia/Stern

NCH, Dublin

Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture

Dvorák - Romance Op 11

Sarasate - Carmen Fantasy

Dvorák - 4 Legends Op 59

Bruch - Violin Concerto No 1

The Northern Sinfonia is facing into an exciting future. This orchestra, roughly comparable in playing strength to the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, is due to move into its new home in the £70 million (€104 million), Norman Foster-designed Sage Gateshead later this year, when it will have access to two halls (1,700 and 400 seats) and will be directly involved in the overall programming for the new venue.

The orchestra's current music director is the dynamic Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair, but their first appearance at the National Concert Hall on Wednesday was given under David Stern. The programme was an unusual one, steering away from the idea of a heavyweight symphonic second half and offering instead a couple of fillers to the three works involving the soloist, American violinist Sarah Chang.

Chang presented herself as what you might call a heavy-weather virtuoso, getting around the notes with ease but habitually creating an impression by making most of the more demanding passages sound demonstratively difficult.

In Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy and the Finale of Bruch's G minor Violin Concerto, this made for a lot of percussive double stopping and sticky off-the-string playing. It's a bit like open-top driving - for any particular velocity, you're going to be much more aware of speed and danger.

Her handling of the simple lyricism of the Dvorák Romance was disappointing, plain to the point of dullness.

Dvorák's Op. 59 Legends are in the same general mould as his slightly earlier Slavonic Dances. Both originated as piano duets, and, in fact, the Legends were written in response to his publishers request for more of the same. They are every bit as potentially delectable as the Slavonic Dances, but their true charm and delicacy was scarcely hinted at by Stern and his players.

The best moments in this concert were found in the outer works, the rough-shod brio brought to Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and the raw energy of the closing Bruch. The many fans of Sarah Chang felt amply rewarded, coaxing two encores before letting her go.

Michael Dervan

Tadhg Stray Wandered In

Project Cube, Dublin

Michael Collins was a Fishamble find, selected to take part in the company's playwright development programme, long before his play The Hackney Office was given a full production by Druid in 2001; now he has come back to his roots with this tragicomic hurtle through the hectic, heightened consciousness of a 17-year-old Navan boy adrift in the backstreets of Paris.

It's a one-man show, with the acclaimed young screen actor Eamonn Owens - you'll remember him from Neil Jordan's film of The Butcher Boy - in the title role, and in his stage debut. While the air prickles with the tang of nerves for the first few minutes, Owens, directed by Jim Culleton, quickly finds his rhythm, delivering a demanding monologue with a punchy, witty verve. In places, this is a deliciously funny play; Tadhg observes himself, his home town, and the "Goths" who hang around the shopping centre - lips all sneers and piercings - with superb deprecation, and his ill-advised flight to Paris, in pursuit of the visiting girl who has caught his eye, serves as a passport to another sort of comedy, all wonder and exclamation.

Owens, at once wide-eyed and droll, draws the laughs in effortlessly for the most part, although there are strained moments when the script pushes him to crack a joke that is too obvious to work, or where his delivery seems too assured of its own hilarity to seek other shades of meaning. Darker presences make themselves known in the play - Tadhg's grief at the death of his mother, once alluded to, throws a constant shadow over his exertions.

His concern at the fate of the young immigrants he has befriended in Paris is less convincing, however, as is his final spiral into dizzy hunger and crime at the play's close. This is ultimately a consequence of the sprawling shape of Collins's script, which admits too many digressions, and works with too erratic a temporal structure, to do itself full justice.

But this is an enjoyable piece nonetheless - and Sabine Doherty's enchanted set design, incorporating a gigantic wooden mechanism of cogs and wheels based on the sculptures of Jean Tinguely, must be seen.

Belinda McKeon

The Sunshine Boys

Civic Theatre, Tallaght

The prolific Neil Simon, doyen of American comedy theatre, is noted for many things. His plots are ingenious, and based on the credibility of his characters; think of The Odd Couple, for instance, and the native authenticity that informs it. The author is also a master of dialogue, especially of the New York Jewish idiom. He is one of a kind.

Any production of his hit comedies must absorb the rhythms of his language and his wit. The Sunshine Boys has been seen here several times before, and it is a very funny play. The story concerns two retired vaudevillians, Willie and Al, who were for 43 years the toast of the variety stage. They always disliked each other, and have been apart for over 10 years when Willie's nephew and agent, Ben, brings a lucrative TV offer for a trip down memory lane.

The two meet again, and immediately resume hostilities. Despite the efforts of Ben and others, their revived sketch is a disaster, ending in a heart attack for Willie. But a sort of happy ending is contrived, and an uneasy peace settles over the two former partners, both headed to a home for old actors.

This production suffers, more than surprisingly, from lacklustre performances from the two principals, Niall Toibin (Willie) and Des Keogh (Al). They hardly attempt authenticity of accent, merely lacing the words with an occasional emphasis which serves only to highlight the continuing deficiency.

This is in contrast to the support cast, led by Michael James Ford (Ben) with David Parnell, Helen Norton, Jack Walsh and Grace-Anne Kelly, who are right on the money.

The two leadsare experienced and talented actors, and give the play at least a tolerable outing, but I am at a loss to explain the inertia that blankets this production. Perhaps director Sighle Toibin could elucidate?

Runs until Apr 24th.

Gerry Colgan