An Enemy Of The People at the Gate

By Guest Blogger John Hartery

A new production  at the Gate Theatre in Dublin opened this week-Enemy Of The People the Ibsen play adapted by Arthur Miller. The play was written nearly 140 years ago by the Norwegian in this production  is set in a 50's America. The plot concern a scientist in a small town whose discovery of poison in the local water supply threatens to spike the growing tourist trade. The town is Kirstin Springs and it is complete with a cast of pillars of society; journalists, publisher, factory owner and mayor (wonderfully played by Denis Conway). The scientist Dr Stockman is played  by Declan Conlon who  grapples with protecting the truth of his discovery against the gathering townsfolk that wants to conceal his findings. 

The first act of the play opens at your average dinner party when Stockman is in middle class heaven hosting his friends and family from his community. This is the inverse of what is to follow.

Thoughts for today from Ibsen

The second act is very dramatic and effective as  director Wayne Jordan places the supporting actors amongst the audience in the theatre as the characters appeal to the masses. The extended cast deliver a rabble rousing meeting from amongst us. 

In his notes, the director describes Ibsen's work as a parable play. And it is. It isn't hard to find resonances in contemporary Ireland  among the cast of characters . An obvious comparison could be made to those who pointed out flaws in the recent Irish disastrous business model of  property development and those in authority who derided and denounced them for doing so! This production is highly recommended.

 

        

Venue Notes:

At €25 minimum the ticket price is expensive. On the night we visited the venue was not full. Some imagination in ticket pricing might grow revenue and get more people in.

It's always a treat to visit the Gate and we loved the walls adorned with pictures of previous productions and the lovely china cups for your coffee.

Directed by Wayne Jordan 

Set Design by Paul O’Mahony 
Costume Design by Joan O’Clery 
Lighting Design by Davy Cunningham
Music and Sound Design by Philip Stewart

Cast includes: Fiona Bell, Liam Carney, Steve Cash, Declan Conlon, Denis Conway, Siobhan Cullen, Robert Duff, Jill Harding, Bosco Hogan, Mark Huberman, Ronan Leahy, Callum Martin, Barry McGovern, Morgan Moore, Peter O’Byrne, Donncha O’Dea, James O’Donoghue 

The Last Summer by Declan Hughes at the Gate Theatre

Rushing to the future 

By guest blogger John Hartery
The Gate Theatre in Dublin premieres a new work by Declan Hughes, The Last Summer,  as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival this week. The play tells the story of a group of teenagers over a summer day in 1977 and how their life evolved as seen 30 years later. What would have happened if they had chosen a different life?

The teenagers storyline is set in 1977 the infamous year that links Elvis and the Sex Pistols. Hughes chooses to anchor the plot with links to the cult Canadian  rock band Rush and the writer  / philospher Ayn Rand.  I'm not too sure that many in Gate audience were too  familiar with their works .There is a rock band about to perform in public for the first time with some Rush  covers and talk of getting the points for college &  moving away and a struggle with what Charlie Haughey solved with  an Irish solution to an Irish problem. (I don't recall university points being a thing in that era).

The Road Not Taken

The play is directed by Toby Frow with a quite minimalist set by Robert Innes Hopkins. The action  is backed up by a soundtrack of pop music from the period and leaps forward and back.

The modern storyline concerns the returned emigrant who has come back to revive an intermittent lost  love. There is a reunion over a pub crawl. We get  a nod to modern Ireland with talk of 'fundamentals of the economy' and a property developer character.

The play is set in South Dublin in the general Dun Laoghaire  area. I felt that the play seemed overly focussed on that region with name checks of the pubs, nightclubs,  a named deli etc with little if any connection in any sense to the wider Ireland. I struggled to generate empathy with any of the characters and their insular world. Gary Lydon as Tom Groves and Clare O'Malley, who played two parts, were the  stand out actors. An average night at the theatre.

We reviewed Beyond the Brooklyn Sky by Michael Hilliard Mulcahy, which also features in the Dublin Theatre Festival,  two weeks ago. The similarity with this play was extraordinary; fortysomething friends who recall  their collective youth, one of four  male  friends is not present and recalled, a daughter as the link to the current generation, a lead actor who plays the guitar and sings, the returned emigrant who came back to get the woman who is now married, the pop music as a nostalgic device, a fight involving the absent one, the reveal under inebriation etc. Amazing!
Beyond the Brooklyn Sky  was the better. 

Here is an Irish Times piece on Declan Hughes