CLARE wants to be a nun when she grows up so she won't have to go out with boys Bill wants to be captain of Liverpool soccer team. They are both 12 years old and bored.
The location is Kilrush, during a long summer. Bill is there for a caravan holiday and will be playing in a junior league soccer tournament Clare has a summer job working for her father in the caravan site. They while away the hours by going swimming, discussing reincarnation, and plotting to outwit the stultifying and' mysterious restrictions placed on their lives by "the adults".
Dear Jack is a play for young people written by Jim Nolan, playwright and artistic director of Red Kettle Theatre Company. No doubt there will be plenty of bored 12 year olds wishing for some relief from the difficult adults in their lives during the Easter holidays. The show is on at the Ark, with previews starting on Tuesday.
Fathers turn out to be the adults most in need of getting their act together and realising that what their children want is quite different from what Dad thinks they want. Grannies fare rather better Bill's granny gives him sweets and money when he, runs messages for her. Clare's granny, who turns up out of the blue, is the rambunctious vaude-villian Bessie, still touring the highways and byways of Ireland with her song and dance routine at the age of 64.
One of the highlights of the play is when Bessie helps Bill and Clare to put on a Punch and Judy show on the beach. Mr Punch, with his "throw the baby out the window" philosophy, is an extreme pastiche of how not to be a father.
The play takes its name from the letters Bill writes to Jack Charlton asking for advice (and sometimes giving it) on his future in the tournament and other soccer related matters. Bill manages to retain his dignity in spite of his team losing the match in the tournament, not to mention the embarrassment of his father (the team manager) who insists on bringing along a team mascot dog. One of the reasons Bill wants to raise money (hence the Punch and Judy shows) is to take his Dad to England to meet Jack Charlton for a training session.
IN THE end, despite Bill's gloomy observation that no one listens to young people or old people either it is the winning combination of Clare, Bill and Bessie that persuades Clare's Dad to stop hiding the truth about the family and to treat Clare "serious", as she asks. In return, Clare admits that it probably isn't that easy being a Dad either.
This is an honest and funny play that should appeal across the generations, but especially to the nine to 13 year old age bracket for which it is intended.