The Clearing Station

The prolific and versatile Joe O'Byrne has a new play at the City Arts Centre, in the form of a dramatic monologue. It is a structure with severe limitations, restricted by its nature from exploiting a range of stage facilities and illusions.

There is the actor, the writing and little more; and both need an exceptional command of the genre to persuade and hold their audience.

The Clearing Station, while not without dramatic and comic moments, is less than successful in this. It is the story of a disturbed teenage girl, taking us from her formative years in the lower depths of Dublin society to a tragic conclusion although improbable hope lingers on.

When small, she hides in a cubbyhole under the stairs from her abusive father, and later spends time away from home.

She tells of her love for her granny, of her timid but loving mother, of a drift into sex and drugs. When she has a baby, with the paternity of her child in doubt, she is in the grip of forces beyond her control, with tragic consequences.

At this point the story moves into grim sequences that strain credulity, then heads for a blatantly surreal ending.

Roisin Kearney creates the main character with manifest empathy and skill. She is required to conjure up an array of others, but the writing hardly allows her to do more than describe them briefly; we don't get to know them.

The author's direction seemed less than objective, and I found Eanna Hickey's music, a thin sound overlaid with heavy percussion, an occasional barrier to audibility. In my view the production, headed next for Edinburgh, is in need of a thorough overhaul.

Runs to May 26th; bookings on 01-6770643