REVIEW: Women on the Verge of HRT (West Belfast Festival, Belfast)
MARIE JONES'S position as the Queen of Hiberno High Concept is assured with Women on the Verge of HRT, which received its premiere at the West Belfast Festival last night. Her plot is a model of instant appealing succinctness.
Vera (Marie Jones herself, and Anna (Eileen Pollock) are two women "the wrong side of 40" whose visit to one of Daniel O'Donnell's celebrated tea parties sparks a meditation on love, sex, ageing and men. Vera's marriage has ended, and she stands unsteadily on the eponymous verge, a female Don Quixote tilting at the windmills of biology. Her friend, Anna, by contrast appears to have come to terms with "the change".
When the pair meet Fergal (Dan Gordon), their hotel waiter, he lures them out to watch the dawn rise from a remote hilltop. As the darkness dwindles, Fergal transforms himself from an amateur magician to a full blown Ariel, using his magic wand to help the women summon up the betes noires of their lives.
Jones's script mixes gritty repartee with songs and theatrical pyrotechnics to produce a richly textured comedy with a dark, dark heart.
Pam Brighton's direction leaves ample room for authoritative performances from all three actors. Jones's Vera has plenty of time to show off her sparkling, brutal intelligence, a weapon which spares nobody, least of all herself, while Pollock offers glimpses of the reality of her character, like a bullfighter teasing a bull, slowly luring the audience on to the picas of her sobs. Gordon energetically plays a gallery of rogues of almost pardonable despicableness.
At times the pacing of Jones's odd battalion of theatrical styles becomes somewhat awkward, with Vera occasionally seeming to repeat herself in the second act. Such signs of unsteadiness do not, however, substantially diminish the impact of a funny, angry and, at times, painfully direct piece of theatre.
Vera (Marie Jones herself, and Anna (Eileen Pollock) are two women "the wrong side of 40" whose visit to one of Daniel O'Donnell's celebrated tea parties sparks a meditation on love, sex, ageing and men. Vera's marriage has ended, and she stands unsteadily on the eponymous verge, a female Don Quixote tilting at the windmills of biology. Her friend, Anna, by contrast appears to have come to terms with "the change".
When the pair meet Fergal (Dan Gordon), their hotel waiter, he lures them out to watch the dawn rise from a remote hilltop. As the darkness dwindles, Fergal transforms himself from an amateur magician to a full blown Ariel, using his magic wand to help the women summon up the betes noires of their lives.
Jones's script mixes gritty repartee with songs and theatrical pyrotechnics to produce a richly textured comedy with a dark, dark heart.
Pam Brighton's direction leaves ample room for authoritative performances from all three actors. Jones's Vera has plenty of time to show off her sparkling, brutal intelligence, a weapon which spares nobody, least of all herself, while Pollock offers glimpses of the reality of her character, like a bullfighter teasing a bull, slowly luring the audience on to the picas of her sobs. Gordon energetically plays a gallery of rogues of almost pardonable despicableness.
At times the pacing of Jones's odd battalion of theatrical styles becomes somewhat awkward, with Vera occasionally seeming to repeat herself in the second act. Such signs of unsteadiness do not, however, substantially diminish the impact of a funny, angry and, at times, painfully direct piece of theatre.
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