Tim Loane's very good comedy is based on the sadly accurate perception that Northern Irish politics often feel like bad farce. The setting is Stormont, 2005. President Clinton is settling into her job in Washington; down in Dublin, President Bono is doing good works in his. But things are as chaotic as ever up North: a referendum has been called on a united Ireland, and the Alternative Unionist party, headed by an Ian Paisley-esque demagogue known simply as The Leader, has called for a general strike to block the vote. But when the Leader dies of a heart attack, the executive of the Alternative Unionists - a slick PR man, a working-class fixer, a minister, and the Leader's effete son Wayne - is thrown into further crisis.
A little too much detail and event ensue before the solution presents itself in the form of earthy County Antrim farmer Pat, who is, of course, a dead-ringer for the dead politician. Pygmalion-like antics ensue and Pat is slotted into the Leader's life, much to the delight of the Leader's wife Constance, since Pat has a voracious sex drive.
There is an inevitable predictability to this kind of slapstick humour, but the final third of Loane's play is genuinely inspired and even inspiring. Constance, Pat and Wayne have a collective fit of conscience and decide to shanghai the party towards reconciliation, outwitting the executive by exploiting their greed and selfishness.
Loane's writing is clever and multilayered: his critique encompasses not only the details of extreme Ulster Protestantism but of sectarianism in general. He even gets in some good jabs on the facile trendiness of Celtic Tiger Irishness. The play, however, feels 20 minutes too long, and there are plot holes: too little is made of Pat's Catholicism, for instance.
The cast is strong, and Dan Gordon gives an electric performance as the Leader/Pat. But Simon Magill's production is sluggish and stays too close to the surface. There is a parallel plot about Wayne's personal and political enlightenment that could have deepened the proceedings considerably, but it gets lost in the mix.
Until March 2. Box office: 028-9043 9313. Then tours across Ireland until March 23.
