CHRIS SEARLE recommends a work of love and deep admiration for a great musician
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To be Irish or not to be Irish
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BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED: Stephen Kennedy as Ray and Matthew Blaney as Matthew
[Lidia Crisafulli]
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JAMIE BRITTON recommends this fine analysis of the architectural, ecological and infrastructural destruction of the Gaza Strip
Not Now
Finborough Theatre
FROM the outset, where a young man finishes breakfast with an erratic, overdramatic soliloquy from Richard III, you know you are in for something special.
David Ireland’s small gem of a play is set in Belfast and deals with 50 minutes in the lives of Matthew, fresh from his father’s funeral and about to fly to London for an audition at RADA and his painter-decorator uncle, Ray.
The beautifully crafted relationship with Ray offering half remembered, cliched and unwanted advice to his nephew on how to act, culled from gossip, films and DVD box covers is typical, amusing Irish banter yet develops to explore far more profound truths when the conversation on performance slides into identity.
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