A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER. To 1 December.

London.

A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER
by Marie Jones.

Trafalgar Studios (Studio 1) To 1 December 2007.
Mon – Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm.
Runs 2hr One interval.

TICKETS: 0870 060 6632
Review: Harriet Davis October 26

…Doesn’t make much of a one in London..
It’s hard to believe that this dire one-hander was written by the author of Stones In His Pockets. Since its conception in 1994, it has toured London, Glasgow, New York and Ireland; something of a mystery considering its nauseating premise. Patrick Kielty plays Kenneth McCallister, a petty-minded dole office clerk, with a petty wife and paltry ambitions to match. Kenneth is a Protestant, the kind with a pedantically manicured lawn, matching household accessories and a barely-concealed derision for Catholics. If he sounds two-dimensional, he is, and his transformation is no more convincing.

Kenneth, accompanied by his wife’s racist father, goes to the World Cup qualifying match between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Despite having lived in Belfast for near on twenty years, Kenneth is shocked at the bigotry on show. He looks with eyes afresh at his awful wife, his measly job and hateful friends, and decides to jump ship. He makes for New York, to watch the now-famous World Cup match between the Republic Of Ireland and Italy. Here Kenneth finally sheds his old skin (and wife and kids to boot) and rediscovers his sense of ‘Irishness’.

Not to mention Jones’s sweeping generalizations in what feels like a Republican propaganda piece, even as theatre this fails miserably. The jokes are either obvious or over-delivered, and the self-explanatory monologues make a poor excuse for drama.

Kielty himself holds the attention, but then we would expect no less from a stand-up comedian. His Kenneth is smug, and largely unlikable throughout. His other characters are vaguely drawn, although this is perhaps more down to Jones’s writing than any failure on his part. Occasionally, in the second half, there is the odd glimmer of hope. The jokes improve by a small percentile, and it’s a relief to leave Kenneth’s family behind. However, the self-congratulatory ending soon puts an end to all that. Unremittingly awful.

Kenneth McCallister: Patrick Kielty.

Director: Ian McElhinney.
Designer/Costume: David Craig.
Lighting: Conleth White.
Sound: James Kennedy.

2007-10-26 11:48:45