Dermot Bolger was the surprise winner of the best new play honour at last year's Irish theatre awards for this dramatisation of 40 years in the northside Dublin area of Ballymun. Its central metaphor is the demolition of Ballymun's seven tower blocks, which have become a symbol of urban decay.
What makes Bolger's play important is the compassion and clarity with which he depicts Ballymun's development as a vibrant community. Middle-aged couple Dessie and Marie and their young daughter are preparing to move out of the flats into new local social housing. Flashback to the 1960s, when young Dessie and his parents, Christy and Carmel, were first moved into Ballymun, buying into the government spin that this was the suburb of the future. The family feels isolated and displaced, which is represented by their inability to have a second child. Marie's family, in contrast, is forced to move to the flats from a private estate because her father abandons them. Her mother, Jane, also feels displaced, and is perceived by neighbours as a snob.
In the tight first act, Bolger blends soliloquies with enacted scenes, beautifully performed by a cast of professionals and community actors in Ray Yeates's wisely stripped-back staging.
In the second half, Bolger the novelist grapples with Bolger the dramatist, and the play is overwhelmed by its complicated plot and themes: Dessie's coming to political awareness as a union activist, Marie's sister's descent into heroin use, Carmel's triumph over illiteracy. Bolger's attempts to parallel the rise and fall of the flats with Dessie and Marie's relationship results in an absurdly protracted courtship, whose outcome is known from the start.
Despite flaws, this is an inspiring first professional production from Ballymun's Axis Arts Centre, and it raises awareness of that community's complexity.
· At the Axis, Ballymun, from tomorrow until Saturday. Box office: 00353 1 883 2100.
