Passionfruit Theatre, an Athlone-based company founded last year, is offering this double bill of the old and the new. First is a play written for radio by Harold Pinter in 1959, soon to be adapted for the stage.
It is a fascinating safari into the jungle of suburbia, and the slouching beasts of insecurity and emotional suppression that prowl it.
The day begins badly for Edward, who wakes with a mild pain in his eyes. He brusquely rebuffs his wife Flora's concern, and turns to another irritant; an old matchseller who has been standing at his garden gate for weeks. What does he want? Flora is ordered to bring him in for interrogation, and a typical Pinter confrontation ensues. The husband talks at him with increasing paranoia and, by the end, the balances of power have all been reversed.
Eoin O'Connell's Edward and Dan O'Dowd's old-timer are excellent, and Evie Craddock is impressively complex and controlled as Flora.
The plot of Brazen Bulls, a new play by Oswald J Healy, might well be out of the Pinter canon, an enigmatic and menacing piece. It opens with Leopold (Dermot Ward), an effete and cerebral man, in charge of a bloodstained captive (John Keane), hooded and bound. He is joined by Arnold (Stephen Herbert), a no-nonsense type, and it becomes clear that they are paid kidnappers. Leopold's innate sadism begins to take over, and he quarrels with Arnold until the victim, finally released, assails his captors verbally, generating a kind of catharsis.
The piece is entertaining, and the author shows a flair for characterisation and dialogue. But it does not, as Pinter does, touch nerves and leave echoes. Both plays are directed by Paul Fagan with sensitive modulation. - Gerry Colgan
Runs to Aug 26
