Problem Child is a joy

Has anybody noticed the distinct lack of recipes on my blog? Yes I have too. To be honest it's been a week of free-range pork dinners served with home-made wedges and salad bought from the Milk Market. Last night we had the not-cooking-at-all favourite of spaghetti with pancetta and I rustled up a vegetarian Indian night another evening. I've been on a real use-up-whats-in-my-freezer and cupboards buzz and other than a weekend trip to the market, I've spent all of Euro20 in the supermarket. I've made bread in the bread machine, vegetable soup and plenty of oatmeal muffins. Guess what, we don't need to spend as much money as we do on food.

Another reason for my lack of complicated dinners is that I've been out lots of evenings at more of the Unfringed Festival productions. The festival has been a huge success and has brought out a lot of the arts loving people of Limerick. However, many people did not know it was on and some company's PR is clearly much harder working than others as some nights were empty while others were sold out. One of the bursting-at-the-seams productions is the excellent Problem Child from Limericks loved Impact Theatre Company. The Play, one of a series of six by the award winning, controversial writer George Walker from Canada, is directed by  Jeff Culbert who has directed five of Walkers plays to date. "I came to Limerick because of the Theatre  boom  that I heard was happening here ", says Culbert "There is a great energy here and the cast and crew are so dedicated and talented that they are a joy to work with".
The Impact team turned the top floor of Stix, a pool hall and amusement arcade on Nicholas Street, into an amphitheatre space that brings the audience eerily and excitingly close to the cast.   

The play is set in a small, cleverly claustrophobic, motel room. Translated into Ireland, it's a typical "emergency housing" situation. Everything happens here, anguish, love, panic, jokes, helplessness, all put into place by stunning performances by the the legendary Myles Breen and the incredible Norma Lowney. Lowney plays Denise, a fallen woman who has tried to do her best by her child and husband by turning a few tricks in prostitution while her husband was in prison, so she could pay the bills. Something happened along the way, we know not, between herself and her mother that caused her Mother to shop her to the social services and have her child taken away. The play is centered on Denise, tormented by longing for her baby, trying to get her baby back from the machine-like Helen, played by Niamh Bowen, a suited, impenetrable wall of inhumane bureaucracy, who holds all the power in the struggle.

Denise's loving but a little docile husband RJ is hooked on the unreality of reality TV and spends his days glued to the box and shouting at it, as people do, much to the bafflement of Denise who seems to occupy another world, in this tiny room. The couple wait in anguish in their room, never leaving for fear they might miss news of getting their baby back. Phillie , played by Brendan Hickey, is a lovable drunk who cleans out the rooms, he treads a thin line between  teddy like gentleness and raging insanity.  He becomes an accomplice in an accidental crime that isn't really a crime at all....

Though the play has tragically funny moments, essentially it paints the desperation of loneliness and longing. Denise, no matter what she now does, is condemned by her sins of old. It painfully portrays the judgementalness of our western world where, if you make a mistake,  you'll have a hard job digging your way out of it. Norma Lowney, who also designed the set, is a knock-out. Not only is she stunningly beautiful, she has the theatre strength of Jessica Lange, go and see her and the wonderful Impact tonight or tomorrow when the plays wraps up.

Photo of Norma Lowney by Latchiko
Impact Theatre Company (061) 319 866

Comments

[Val]

Hi sarah

Too much wine at the Slow Food night eh? Looking forward to your review
Val

[Sarah]

Great review. I'm going to this later and looking forward to it.... If only i could shift this hangover!!!

[Kieran]

Sounds a great excuse! I haven't been to the theatre in ages and miss it...