IN a rational "normal" world, the dramatic transactions in Gary Mitchell's new play for the stage might seem like melodrama. But, as the playwright makes frighteningly clear, here is no normal world in which actions are governed by moral or legal imperatives.
Here is an enclosed world where amoral pragmatism, enveloped in intimidation and violence, is the norm. Here is a world in which familial loyalties and love must be expressed in a societal chaos of power plays and the mere possibility of survival.
The world is Mr Mitchell's own patch of north Belfast in which three brothers, whose mother has retreated from that world, must work out for themselves the means of their own survival.
Ray is the hard man who enjoys taking part in punishment beatings, anxious about what seems to him to be the fraying of the local hard line tribal edges of the local boss of the loyalist organisation.
His brother, Richard, of whom he is immensely protective, is mentally handicapped and infatuated with Susan, the flirty daughter of the local boss, who may be having an affair with a neighbourhood Taig.
And Gordon, the other brother, is having trouble with the faith he needs to have in his religion if it is to work for him, as his fiancee, Deborah, wants it to do.
From such unpromisingly over the top material the author has fashioned a drama which, were it to be a novel, would be described as unputtable down. But this is no novel. It is a compelling piece of theatre, written in authentically spare and frequently funny dialogue, which says far more than is expressed in words.
Excellently directed by Conall Morrison, with every gesture, stance and action entirely in sympathy with what the playwright is trying to state between the often inexpressive words, it is superbly acted in a setting by Kathy Strachan, well lit by Tony Wakefield, which catches the mean, small frontroom of the family home trapped in the big pebble dashed walls and alley ways of the neighbourhood.
Stuart Graham is impeccably unthinking as the hard man, impeccably loving as Richard's protective brother.
Marc O'Shea is marvellously touching as Richard, who can be clever in card tricks and games yet unaware of the strategies of the games and unknowing of the wider world.
Sean Kearns is Gordon, struggling with the decency of a conscience unsupported by a deeper faith and trying without success to do his blustering best for those he loves, including fiancee, Deborah, who has the faith to make prayer meaningful for her - a nicely bewildered and frightened performance by Andrea Irvine.
Lalor Roddy is the perfectly sinister deus ex machina darkclothed messenger who seems lethally supportive of the family cause. With author and director they all provide a rivetting piece of theatre which is richly rewarding on several levels. Don't miss it.
