Bewley's Cafe Theatre
The new lunchtime entertainment in Bewley's combines literary fun with novel presentation. Two actresses, Carol Stephens and Iseult Golden, offer dramatised recitations of poetic monologues by Carol Ann Duffy which let the wives of famous men loose to savage their spouses.
The book from which they are taken was a huge success for the author in 1999 and this show first appeared in Temple Bar Galleries last December.
The acid-tongued ladies come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Mrs Freud, in her obsession with sexual matters, merely echoes her husband's professional preoccupations - although she has a really bad mouth.
Mrs Quasimodo, having fallen for her misshapen man, lives to regret and revenge it. And Eurydice; why does everyone assume that she wanted to leave the underworld with Orpheus, of whom, in truth, she was thoroughly fed up?
There are in all 12 heroines or harpies, depending on one's gender and disposition, telling their tales. The two performers portray each of them with empathy and enthusiasm, and with no little talent.
For some 50 minutes, they ring the changes on their subjects, finding more than the fun; the poetry is spiked with many telling words and sentiments. Their author's high reputation is not misplaced.
So here is an opportunity to find out what Mrs Rip Van Winkle did during the Big Sleep, to scan the mind of Delilah before the Haircut, to muse with Salome and empathise with - truly - Queen Kong. It's an offer not to be lightly refused.