Hothouse
Project Arts Centre
★★★★★
Early on in Hothouse, the cruiseship-captain-cum-narrator indicates that we should prepare for something weird. It’s that all right, but the adjective undersells this concoction. Malaprop’s new show is many things. It’s a play by Carys D Coburn, with the company, dealing with the macro (climate chaos) and the micro (the intricacies of family dynamics and intergenerational trauma). It’s a surreal, sometimes dreamlike narrative full of invention, oddity, humour and intelligence. And it’s a rollicking performance, with beautiful harmonies, a poppy soundtrack and dancing as the action roars along, traversing decades, lives and species.
The timeline runs from 1969 into the future, hooked around a climate cruise to the Arctic, to see melted icecaps, and a disturbing family narrative. It’s punctuated by interruptions as a series of featured “showbirds” becomes extinct. This recurrent motif is horrifying but very funny, emblematic of the black humour at the core and of how skilfully this team marries heavy themes of climate destruction and domestic violence, wrapped in thorough entertainment.
The sharp, nuanced, well-structured script rips along under Claire O’Reilly’s assured, quirky direction. There are many aphorisms, but it’s not glib and is full of the unexpected. Molly O’Cathain’s on-point set and costumes meld orange-dominated burning with showbiz aesthetic.
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The superb Peter Corboy, Thommas Kane Byrne, Bláithín Mac Gabhann, Maeve O’Mahony and Ebby O’Toole Acheampong play a very large cast of humans, plus various showbirds, and a talking rabbit.
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Hothouse has a delicate line to walk here, between big-picture and personal, deadly serious and wild fun and funny. Malaprop pulls it off with skill, style and substance.
Continues at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 16th
