ALONE IT STANDS by John Breen. Duchess Theatre to 9 February.

London

ALONE IT STANDS
by John Breen

Duchess Theatre To 9 February 2002
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS 0870 890 1103/020 7344 4444 (both with booking fee)
Review Timothy Ramsden 3 January

Sporting comedy with plenty of character and appropriately energetic performances.This is hardly what's thought of as West End stuff. And that's not a matter of quality. The six actors in Breen's well-honed production are alive to all the detail in every quick-passing comic moment- of which there are plenty.

It's more a matter of style. Though the Limerick sky-line stretches across the back of the Duchess stage, the predominance of black curtains and the simple benches either side more than hint that here's a show which grew from a less formal staging with closer audience contact than the West End allows.

Let's hope West End prices don't put off people who would enjoy the show. The producers have kept ticket costs blow most West End theatres', but top tickets still nudge thirty pounds. A fair slice of the winnings should go to Breen and his five-men-and-a-woman-on-a-rugby-field team.

It's a David and Goliath, or Jack the Giant Killer, story. Ireland, 1978, and enter from across the world Rugby's hitherto ever-victorious All Blacks. The men from Munster, amateurs at the game, stand to be slaughtered. Except they're not; not only do they win but – unheard of – don't let the world conquerors score so much as a point against them.

Though the cast wear all black to the interval, sporting Munster red for the second half, the visitors are the backing group, mainly there to show the disciplined, confident monster the Munster men must face.

It's comedy that works best; matching the onstage conflict is the way six actors and next to no set keep conquering the towering demands of depicting a crowded pub, crowded terraces, or a hustling, heaving rugby field. Breen only bites off more than they can all chew in the death of a player's ex-sportsman father during the match. The quick dip in and out of seriousness feels false and sentimental.

New life fares better, as the pulullating progress of the oval ball is intercut with the pushings and contractions of birth. As the mother-about-to-be is from a rugger-loving family it's apt enough a full-grown player's head seems to emerge from her innards; just one of the inventive physical devices that give this show its kick.

It's all based on real events. Knowledge of Munster or rugby may enrich some details, but the play doesn't need either to prop it up. Appropriately, it stands alone.

Cast:
Malcolm Adams
Dessie Gallagher
Garrett Lombard
Gerry McCann
Niamh McGrath
Paul Ryan Meade

Director: John Breen
Designer: Jack Kirwan
Lighting: James C. McFetridge

2002-01-13 13:18:51