In Abbie Spallen’s expletive-riddled play, the term “scut” is almost affectionate. Her new political satire, for Belfast company Tinderbox, is a study of frustration and powerlessness, set in the present on the outskirts of a Northern Irish border town.
Lally (Roisin Gallagher) is a tough young woman whose small son is trapped in a bog hole. Seeking help, she has a series of encounters with community representatives who outdo each other in cynicism. From borough councillors to politicians, the media and the church, all are pursuing self-serving agendas, and there is no one she can trust. Lally’s shifty husband is suspected of having pushed the child underground. As an infant, Lally was abandoned down a well by her mother, a religious fanatic. The improbable repetition of these events is one reason for the general reluctance to help Lally. There are fears, too, that digging up these fields might uncover bodies buried during the Troubles.
With characters that are emblematic rather than realistic, the episodic scenes are part Brechtian agitprop, part standup comedy, delivered with ferocity. Scenes with a lighter touch are the most effective: a rally where two politicians blather about post-peace-process adjustment is an acute parody, perfectly timed by Tara Lynne O’Neill and Miche Doherty.
Other performances are less polished in Michael Duke’s production, which does not succeed in clarifying the tangled subplots, nor in moving the cast of 12 fluidly around the stage. Although the play is written as an expressionist piece, the staging seems too naturalistic and literal, especially in a rough sex scene between Lally and an unhinged priest (Tony Flynn). This is only suggested in the text but enacted here.
Ideas, issues, metaphors and scathing gags pile up. By the time we get to a mock-torture scene, shrugged off by a former terrorist as “postmodernist conflict humour”, nothing is off-limits. While one character knowingly refers to the play’s Chernobyl-black Northern Irish humour, it is clear that Spallen, a playwright of intellect and ambition, is wholly serious in intent.
• Until 2 May. Venue: the Mac, Belfast.
