Dubblejoint's latest effort daringly broaches timely and potent material about racism in contemporary Northern Ireland and about the complex position of the Irish as both slaves and slaveowners in 1760s Montserrat. The attempt is bold, but its failure almost total.
The action alternates between two time periods and two couples: Gerard, a self-proclaimed "Taig with attitude" working for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, arrives in contemporary Montserrat and romances sweet Clarissa who, conveniently, is a schoolteacher, so that she can educate Gerard and the audience about the history of her native land.
The historical plot illustrates the problems she reveals: a Galwayman overseer, angry at his lack of power in relation to the English who run the island, beats and rapes his black slave Bridget, who is fomenting the doomed St Patrick's Day slave rebellion.
The ravages of colonialism are clearly Campbell's target, at least in the first act, and that he and Dubblejoint, a company associated with Republicanism, are willing to represent the Irish as not just victims but perpetrators is refreshing.
But the relationship between action and characterisation is a mess: we find out too much via bald patches of narration. In the second act, newlyweds Clarissa and Gerard arrive back in volcano-torn Montserrat to open a hotel and reveal in a big fight just how miserable their life in Belfast has been. He overworks, she over-shops, and both are victims of racism.
There is a TV movie somewhere in this later material, but here the action and character development happen offstage. And if Campbell is attempting a parallel between the two couples' situations, the gender and race politics get very dodgy. The acting is one-dimensional and Pam Brighton's sceneblackout- scene staging is sloppy. What a shame.
· Until March 26. Box office: 02890-381 081.
.png?w=600)
