Sarah Keating reviews Over and Outat the Civic Theatre

Over and Out

Civic Theatre

In Robert Massey's new comedy, Over and Out, a local shopping centre serves as a microcosm of modern Ireland. Set in the mall's staff room, over the course of a single shopping day, the play dissects the lives of three security guards, who are struggling to come to terms with their place within a rapidly changing society. As working-class men, they are pawns in an economic and social hierarchy that they are unable to control: so far so sociologically acute.

However, the real surprise of Massey's play is the unrelenting balance between sympathy and censure that his characters evoke.

While the script itself is hardly challenging - built around a predictable and entirely preposterous plot - the barely likeable characters provoke some demanding discomfort which elicits reflection beyond easy entertainment.

Raymond, played by Joe Hanley with a simian swagger, is an ignorant bigot and homophobe, and although Massey makes the root of Raymond's defensiveness clear (the threat posed to his job, the incipient mid-life crisis) just cause makes him no more sympathetic. Rational Arthur (a detached David O'Meara) is a sensible self-sacrificing soul, but he too has prejudices that stretch beyond his philosophical posturing.

In fact it is up to the gormless Morris, played with impeccable comic verve by John Olohan, to provide us with some semblance of humanity.

Terry Byrne directs for Lane Productions with unwavering pace, allowing the laughter to build rather than settle. Instead of disabling the more uncomfortable moments in the play, however, the comic frenzy makes the uneasiness of some of the characters' intolerance even more profound.

Unfortunately, Over and Out'sundoing comes in its final dénouement, which ends up reaffirming the destructive prejudices that have precipitated the play's crisis, sacrificing one form of bigotry for another and ultimately demonising the foreigner: "Ah, them queers are all right," the play seems to conclude, "it's the Poles that cause all the problems".

Still, for a popular comedy to be probing these issues at all, Robert Massey deserves full credit. For an anatomy of modern Ireland, you need, indeed look no further than your local shopping mall.

Until June 7th. 9th - 14th June, Pavilion Dún Laoghaire; June 16th-17th,

Glór, Ennis; June, 19th-21st Draíocht, Blanchardstown; June 23rd-26th, Cork Opera House; June 27th-28th, Source Arts Centre; June 30th to July 2nd,

Garter Lane Arts Centre; July 3rd-5th, Dunamaise Arts Centre; July 7th-9th, Watergate Theatre; July 10th-12th, Moat Theatre, Naas