"Young people of Ireland: I love you." The Pope's effusive greeting to the multitudes in Galway in 1979 has become part of the soundtrack of the 1970s.
Jim O'Hanlon's new play, however, makes it clear that not all of Ireland's youth returned the Pope's sentiments. A disaffected rock musician, Paulie (Paul Reid), and a homeless drug addict, Joy (Neili Conroy), are among the pilgrims in Dublin's Phoenix Park, where the Pope celebrated mass for a million people. That these characters should run into each other at all in that vast space is one of the many coincidences in a play that strains credulity.
If it were an impressionistic memory play, the implausibilities of the plot wouldn't matter. But the opening scenes introduce a naturalistic family drama set in the suburbs of Dublin. A long-suffering wife, Ruth (Catherine Byrne), son Paulie and an elusive husband and former seminarian, Gerard (Enda Oates), are presented with the well-defined brush strokes of soap opera. But O'Hanlon's script then goes off the rails, leaving little for director Jim Culleton to do except limit the damage.
The Pope's visit becomes a catalyst for an avalanche of revelations, as Gerard's brother Francis (Barry Barnes), a priest, confesses his love for Ruth; Joy, whom Gerard has been secretly meeting, is discovered to be pregnant by another priest, and so on. The humour of the early scenes depends, in part, on the audience knowing that, 25 years on, things haven't turned out quite as the characters envisaged. But the pleasures of nostalgia and hindsight are no match for the heavy-handed symbolism and layers of overwriting. Byrne, in particular, is lumbered with some embarrassingly ponderous lines about Ireland's shame; it is to her credit and that of Barnes that they carry off their quasi-love scenes with quiet dignity. The overworked themes deal ultimately with questions of faith, which is precisely what this play can't command.
· Until Saturday, then tours until December 18. Tickets: 00 353 1 6704018.
