THE FLAGS. To 25 March.

Manchester

THE FLAGS
by Bridget O'Connor

Royal Exchange Studio To 25 March 2006
Mon-Fri 7.30pm Sat 4pm & 8pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS: 0161 833 9833
www.royalexchange.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 23 March

Downbeat fun at the seaside.
No escaping it; JJ and his young sidekick are losers. Like many such pairs, there's mutual dependency, with an older one appearing the source of wisdom and determination to a younger disciple, till a dramatist comes along and engineers disillusionment. And like all losers, this pair are stuck in a backwater. Even if it is on the edge of the wide, wide ocean.

Behind the beach lies a small Irish town where everyone knows, and probably makes demands on, everybody else. Where local council man Brendan struts it, proud in the power of his clipboard and decision-making tick-boxes. Currently, he has the ability to transfer lifeguards JJ and Howie from their deserted, detritus-ridden beach to a more populous one, where life would have a purpose.

You know it's not going to happen; the interest lies in working out who's going to make what mistake or uncover which truth to ensure this. There should be an irony in lifesavers who fritter away their own lives in talk and dreams. But this pair are as likely to be a danger as a help to honest people who encounter trouble in the swim of things.

Familiar as their buddy-relationship, with its Americanised salutation of 'dude' covering deceit and touchingly misplaced trust, is in modern drama, playwright Bridget O'Connor gives the pair plenty of individuality in their mix of eagerness and anger, while devising a series of incidents that gives them more than enough problems to try them during their shift.

Often comic (especially, as so often in such plays, in the first act), O'Connor's script also respects its characters, including a woman intent on death - Siobhan McSweeney's Ursula, who eventually links into the lifeguards' backstory, adds an edge of whimsy to the comedy. Even pompous Brendan has a touchingly naive edge to his self-assurance. And Greg Hersov's production makes good use of the Royal Exchange's studio space in a shingle-floored thrust-stage layout. Despite the title, the pace never flags, thanks mainly to the electricity between Francis Magee's commandingly sure JJ and the darting emotional directness of Jamie Beamish as the innocent Howie.

JJ: Francis Magee
Howie: Jamie Beamish
Brendan: Kieran Cunningham
Ursula: Siobhan McSweeney

Director: Greg Hersov
Designer: Laurie Dennett
Lighting: Richard Owen
Sound: Steve Brown, Claire Windsor
Fights: Renny Krupinski

2006-03-23 17:21:30