C.L.G./ Sitting up for Michael
White Bear Theatre,
Kennington
London
★★★ (out of five)
FROM a producer’s point of view there are drawbacks to local theatre. The challenge to get bums through the door and on to seats each night, along with the ability to turn a profit, are obvious examples.
However, there are clear benefits to the organic possibilities afforded by fringe theatre.
There’s a chance to take more risks, to be more immediate and (at times) more relevant than mainstream productions.
C.L.G., the first of a double-header of plays written, produced and lead by James McAnespy, is based on the world of GAA and therefore should be timely.
After all, the organisation recently announced a multi-million pound television deal with Sky and has entered a period of soul-gazing about the future direction of the sport and its amateur roots.
And tonight the tiny stage space at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington, south London – situated behind the main bar of the pub – is a shabby clubhouse where walls are adorned with team photos which suggest stories of past glory.
Lory (played by McAnespy) is locked in a room with Sam (Paul Christian Rogers), a player from a rival football club two divisions higher than Lory’s side, who sit in lowly Division 3.
The pair are trying to thrash out which ground they will play their first derby match in nine years.
Lory, a joiner by trade, represents the honourable, grass-roots of the sport in which “lads only transfer if they emigrate”.
Meanwhile, besuited Sam is the scheming, dastardly, money-corrupted face of where the game may end up in the future.
Given that the one-scene, 40-minute play didn’t shy away from contemporary references (such as Edward Snowden and the NSA files), the lack of direct references to the Sky deal (and all it could entail) was a little disappointing.
If it had, C.L.G. could have gone from something written anytime in the past one, five or 10 years to something altogether more contemporary – and here it felt like a bit of an open goal was missed.
To borrow a well-worn sports cliché, it was a game of two halves tonight and the production came out much stronger in the second period through Sitting Up for Michael.
A cosy Tyrone living room was the setting of a Wake for the recently deceased head-of-the-house Michael Montague.
It’s Friday night before the funeral and the Montague’s house buzzes with activity, bickering families along with visits from neighbours and pals.
Much of the drama centres on the deceased’s grandson Joe, who has returned from Queens University with new flame Carla (played by Janette McManus) who harbours a secret known only to Rory, a hard-drinking pal of Joe’s who has hit the bottle after the suicide of a local girl.
As well as a meandering plot, Sitting Up for Michael is aided by strong directorial work.
The lighting and props are excellent. The flash-forward scenes – interludes where those gathered at the Wake gulp drink after drink at a rapid pace – capture well the whirlwind (and futility) of a night’s debauchery around the living room table where Jameson’s are swapped as fast as the cards are dealt during games.
The full spectrum of humour, loss and regret is on show in Sitting Up for Michael (amid a background with references to the bombings). The cast too deliver believable performances, arguably topped by a cameo from local eccentric Billy, played by Peter Dineen (sheep trader Giant Reid in Father Ted), whose wild, pious character makes the play worth seeing on its own.
C.L.G./ Sitting Up for Michael is produced by King’s Fool Productions and runs at the White Bear Theatre until April 27
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