PORT AUTHORITY. To 19 March.

Liverpool

PORT AUTHORITY
by Conor McPherson

Everyman Theatre To 19 March 2005
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 9 March 1.30pm & 19 March 2pm
Runs 1hr 25min No interval;

TICKETS: 0151 709 4776
boxoffice@everymanplayhouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 5 March

A good script well performed; why is anything else necessary?Every Conor McPherson play seems a variation on Irish male self-revelation by monologue. Here, it's three interlinked monologues by characters who are in the same play set in the theatre but live separate lives.

McPherson reduces Shakespeare's 7 ages of man to 3 stages of male adulthood. On the up is 20-something Kevin, finding his feet with the female; thinking he's arrived is 35 going on 40 Dermot, whose attraction for the boss's wife does for him, while Joe, at the end of 3 score years and 10, has memories delving back into less forward times.

Passing the port to the world of women brings these three trouble. Kevin's starry-eyed view of Clare when you saw her it took you a second but you knew she was special contrasts Dermot's look back to being Kevin's age before going fully equipped on gin and tonic to work for Ireland's No. 1 music producer - coming from nowhere, thinking he's found his future till the past he's always referring to sweeps him up.

While Joe remembers his attempt to take the photo of a neighbour's wife for whom he'd fallen as the nearest to his literal dream-woman and the silent sexual consent in giving permission all from the comfort of an old people's home.

McPherson's structure is simple; the three talk in constant rotation. The performers in Matthew Dunster's production catch the play's tonal variety, from Matthew Dunphy's eager voice through Ruari Conaghan's disillusion to Ciaran McIntyre's calmly wistful recollection.

The script comes over fine but it's not quite allowed to speak for itself. A few bits of movement might go unnoticed but the snatches of music between scenes, while offering a sense of different moods of the moment, also create unnecessary gaps. More harmfully, most of the time there's unnecessary projection of the three faces. It's distracting; eyes are too easily drawn from the actor to the slightly varied angle of their face magnified on screen. Shoving technology in anywhere spoils its proper use in theatre. And if you don't trust a script like this to work alone, don't do it.

Kevin: Matthew Dunphy
Dermot: Ruari Conaghan
Joe: Ciaran McIntyre

Director: Matthew Dunster
Designer: Simon Banham
Lighting: Mike Brookes
Sound: Sean Pritchard

2005-03-09 12:16:08