Three grown men in shorts in a primary school classroom, plus three interweaving accounts of children fathoming the world, equals a surprising entertainment – along with what more you want to carry away from it. To read the tales of Frank O’Connor (1903-66) is to be reincarnated in the skin of his protagonists. So what if you are not, nor ever have been, a seven-year-old boy growing up in Cork in the early 1900s? O’Connor’s situations are crafted from states all can recognise. We have not lived these events, but we have experienced these feelings.
O’Connor has justly been described as one of the greatest short-story writers of the 20th century. What’s to be gained by staging work meant to be read? In Patrick Talbot’s adaptation (which he also directs) of My Oedipus Complex, The Genius and First Confession, a new perspective emerges – one that opens up a wider social context without sacrificing the hilarity of the child narrators’ quirky perspectives. Talbot’s skill in dovetailing the pieces for dramatic effect is fine, but the success of the show depends on the pitch of the performances. Ciaran Bermingham (known to many as Mord in Game of Thrones), Shane Casey and Gary Murphy perfectly judge the humour of their characters and situations – and through this manage something deeper: to show the child in the man and the man the child, so formed, must become.
• Touring until 25 April
