A selection of reviews by Irish Times writers.
The Year of the Hiker
Town Hall Theatre, Galway
By Patrick Lonergan
The Year of the Hiker is one of John B Keane's most popular plays, but it's not as highly respected as Sive or The Field. In part, this is because it sometimes appears superficial or coarse in production. Hiker Lacey has returned to his family after 20 years' absence, full of remorse but convinced that his sister-in-law Freda was the cause of his banishment. In the script, these characters are presented without judgment, but in performance Hiker can be misrepresented as a lovable rogue, while Freda can seem like a melodramatic villain, whose problem is that she couldn't get a man of her own.
Another difficulty is the play's symphonic structure. Keane presents a series of confrontations between Hiker and his family, repeating phrases and ideas to lead us toward an intense, moving conclusion. Performed incorrectly, these repetitions can seem heavy-handed and, ultimately, boring.
This Garry Hynes production is alert to the play's imperfections, but reveals its many strengths. Keane's script has been pared back considerably: gags have been cut, and the dialogue tightened. And, crucially, the relationships between the characters have shifted. Hiker is now weaker and thus more sympathetic, while Freda is more complex - full of longing, anger, and suppressed sexuality. The four other main characters appear richer too, all of them struggling to negotiate the conflicting feelings of love and hate provoked by Hiker's return.
This action is presented in a style of heightened naturalism: performances are grippingly credible, but movement is sometimes exaggerated, pointing us toward the play's deeper resonances. This process is aided by Francis O'Connor's set, in which everyday objects - a mirror, coats, a fireplace - acquire greater significance. A large window dominating the back of the stage is particularly eloquent, acting as both a symbol of freedom, and a reminder that this family's problems arise from a sense of being judged by their neighbours.
Hynes's Hiker is therefore sophisticated, moving, and richly theatrical - and it features acting that's astonishingly good, even by Druid's standards. Importantly, it's also a reminder of the continuing significance of John B Keane, whose fourth anniversary occurs this month.
At the Town Hall until May 20, then in the Gaiety, Dublin May 22-June 17
Howie the Rookie
Peacock Theatre, Dublin
By Sara Keating
Despite the urban mundanity of a familiar Dublin landscape, there is something quite extraordinary about the characters in Mark O'Rowe's play Howie the Rookie.
United by their "namesake in Lee-ness", the kung-fu film-star Bruce Lee, the lives of The Howie Lee and The Rookie Lee are connected by a tendency toward anti-social behaviour and a set of violent circumstances drawn less from the stereotype of working-class alienation and more from the realm of tragic inevitability.
From The Howie's creation of an urban myth around recent events on the housing estate that he shares with The Rookie to his elevation as a tragic hero at the end of the play, the very real sense of Dublin's social fringes evoked in O'Rowe's play is matched with the mythic resonance of literary greatness. O'Rowe achieves this by using the most basic theatrical tools of storytelling.
The dramatic action unfolds in two monologues, the first narrated by The Howie Lee, the second by The Rookie Lee. Against the backdrop of cracked concrete panels designed by Johanna Connor, O'Rowe's language creates a startling visual world of its own. Peripheral characters and violent fight scenes are evoked with a technicolour immediacy that is sustained throughout by cinematic pacing and the visceral stage presence of the actors.
Director Jimmy Fay has borrowed the cast from the original 1999 Bush Theatre production (which also came to Dublin), and while Aidan Kelly and Karl Sheils both are a little mature for the characters they play, they bring a weather-beaten, hardened aspect to their characters that is in constant tension with the sympathy that O'Rowe elicits from them as their connected fate unfolds.
It is a brutal, gruesome fate, which fulfils a mythic prophecy with unlikely and ironic implications. And as with all great stories, the tragic end makes us think twice about its beginning.
Until June 10
AXA Dublin International Piano Competition Round 1
RDS, Dublin
By Michael Dervan
The 2006 AXA Dublin International Piano Competition is different from all its predecessors in a number of ways. The size of the field in the first round has been cut by around a third to 44 players, and the choice of piano expanded from Steinway and Kawai to include Yamaha for the first time.
With 44 pianists in contention for 24 second-round places, the transition from Round 1 to Round 2 now has a rate of attrition lower than any other stage, a reversal of the pattern of previous years.
Yet the jury's task in making its first eliminations was not one to be envied. The technical standard of this year's competitors was the most consistently high I've encountered. But the musical insight on show did not reach the same level. I wasn't able to decide whether this was simply a matter of reliable technique revealing issues that might otherwise have remained disguised, or that musical standards have actually dropped somewhat.
When John O'Conor founded the Dublin competition he abandoned the familiar routine of set repertoire. On the evidence of this year's first round he now needs to consider modifying his openness by banning certain areas of repertoire that are being too regularly abused. He could begin with Rachmaninov's Second Sonata and Ravel's La valse, and quickly add all of Haydn and Mozart, maybe allowing individual players of proven track record a special dispensation.
The tendency at the moment is for Haydn and Mozart to be turned into prattlers, and for the Rachmaninov and Ravel to be treated as a kind of test ground for measuring players' skills in loud notes per second.
No one is ever likely to be fully satisfied at the outcome of the first-round cull, not even the jury members themselves, whose individual choices may differ radically from the group verdict.
I was glad to see the jury responding to the carefully nuanced Mozart of Libor Novacek, the daring choice of a Handel suite by Benjamin Smith (he made it both musically and pianistically interesting), the delicate Scarlatti and curvaceous Ravel of David Fung (a La valse deserving a dispensation), the caressing Haydn, featherweight Ligeti and long-breathed Chopin of Sasha Grynyuk, and the strangely fantastical sense of freedom of Ching-Yun Hu, identifying her as a player willing to stand outside the box with a distinctive, often mild-mannered resolve.
Her accurate musical parsing of Chopin's A minor Study, Op 10 No 2, would put most performers to shame, and I was glad the jury forgave the excessive liberties of her Granados.
The jury's full list also includes Romain Descharmes, François Dumont, Marco Fatichenti, Dorel Golan, Ben Kim, Kyu Yeon Kim, Sunghoon Kim, Tatiana Kolesova, Eduard Kunz, Hyo-Sun Lim, Rieko Nezu, Esther Park, Roberto Plano, Elizabeth Joy Roe, Hao Shen, Rina Sudo, Young-Ah Tak, Gilles Vonsattel, and Chexin Xu.
The dominance of Asian players and players of Asian extraction in the competition is at an all-time high. They make up more than half the second-round line-up. And the failure of any Irish performer to make it beyond the first round is an outcome that will no doubt be much debated. This is the first time it has happened, and I wouldn't quibble with the jury's verdict.
The Irish performer who interested me most was Ruth McGinley, who now, in her late twenties, seems poised to deliver on the high promise of her teenage years. And the player I was most sorry to lose was the intelligently individual Chenyin Li, who made a better impression on me this time than when she made it to the semi-finals back in 2000.
The second round of the competition continues tonight, 01-2407275
