Buille an Phice

BRIAN O Riagain's debut professional play, Buille an Phice, premiered before a full house in Amharclann de hide (Andrews Lane) last night.

Focusing on the lives of Tony (Denis Conway), a schoolteacher, Deirbhle (Ann Marie Horan), his wife and a government adviser, and their daughter, Jenny (Gina Costigan McDermottroe), O Riagain sets himself the task of navigating through the disintegration of their family life and Tony's eventual demise. Added to the trio are their mutual acquaintance, Aine Thornton (Caitrfina Ni Mhurchu), and Tony's students, Balo (Victor Burke) and his companion (Aonghus Og McAnally).

While the members of the cast are all solid throughout, O Riagain does them no lavours with a script which oscillates wildly between Irish and English. Indeed, there is something very wrong with an Irish-language play where all the best lines are in the foul Saxon tongue.

Aine speaks (mostly) English with Deirbhle. Yet later, when questioned by the gardai about Tony's untimely end, she responds almost entirely in Irish. Did I miss something here? She speaks English with her friend but Irish with the Dublin gardai? Surely not.

Similarly, we are asked to believe that Dod (a fine performance from Liam Heffernan), Tony's brother who works in England as a solicitor, returns home and speaks fluent and faultless Irish with his sister-in-law.

Bilingualism in the name of realism is doomed to fall between two linguistic stools. O Riagain forgets the single most basic aspect of theatre - the audience knows that it's not real, but is prepared to live in the imaginative world of the stage to learn and be entertained.

More fundamental to the play's stagnation is the lack of dynamism. O Riagain almost succeeds in creating a work with no beginning, no middle and no end - a circular play which beggars belief in some of its assertions. Deirbhle accidentally kills Tony and their daughter happily visits her in the clink! Then his estranged brother flies home to offer her free legal advice!

In Buille on Phice, O Riagain shows himself to be deeply concerned with many aspects of contemporary life. Perhaps dealing with a single aspect might bear better results.