The Windstealers

Smock Alley Theatre

****

It's an idea that Flann O'Brien would have relished: stealing wind and selling it back to the hapless inhabitants of a small Irish town plagued by epic gales and economic woe. Jane Madden's new play for Eccles Theatre is an exuberant satiric romp involving wide boys, cowboys, anagrams and dollops of corruption, and is confidently directed with great pacing by Anushka Senanayake. Into Ballygweeha with a plan to harness the big wind comes Luc Torney, native son turned high-flying entrepreneur, glad-handing and greasing palms until the windmills whirl. But there is a strong scent of double-dealing, and Jacinta Nangle, the young town dissenter (betimes loaded with indignation and a bottle of Tesco gin), is having none of it. Madden's stints in TV comedy are evident, and there are familiar echoes, from Ballymagash to Craggy Island, but where Windstealers sparks and soars is in its huge physicality and theatrical energy (with much credit to movement director Monika Bienek). No one is spared, be they on the make or on the dole: the sideswipes are gentle but ecumenical, for politicians, bankers, developers, overbearing mothers and whingers. This is an ambitious project and a great vehicle for the ensemble cast of seven (mostly recent graduates from the Lir Academy), who are immaculate and hilarious.