Wake
A young man in the buzzy foyer said to me as he was leaving that it was the best show he had ever seen.
Maybe he doesn’t see a lot of theatre, but it certainly was a thrilling night of entertainment - even an audience participant was so good I thought she was a plant.
Set at an Irish wake, there was not much mourning taking place – think more like Riverdance on speed.
The creators tapped into the Irish tradition of having a raucous time at a traditional farewell.
Lest you think that this was going be a night of jigging up and down in green - the first song was ‘I Want to Dance With Somebody’ with the ensemble entering the stage in hot Lycra.
A breakdancer, Cristian Emmanuel Dirocie, spinning impossibly on his head set the bar high for the performance which one artist after another met.
When there was a dash of traditional Irish dancing, paced by brilliant violinist Lucia Mac Partlin, an alarm went off as if to say enough of that.
A drunk uncle Philip Connaughton swayed and tapped across the stage searching for a man to love.
Another character Duncan Disorderly (Emer Dineen) plucked a woman from the audience to have an on-stage date with. The lass hammed it up so well and was such a good dancer that I assumed she was a plant, but was spotted in the foyer bathroom afterwards.
Occasionally there was a dash of verbal gymnastics from the MC Felispeaks firing off poetry about ways people can pass away.
This gave the performers a chance to catch their breath. They need to. Dancer Michael Robertson, who came on stage as a soccer player but soon was left with just sparkling briefs tap dancing away before he floated up on a hoop.
A pole dance with impossible splits from aerialist Lisette Krol impressed particularly as she had the highest of heels on.
When some more traditional Irish dancing returned, the twist was that the two performers had giant balloons over their heads.
The pace never wavered with the crowd rising to their feet to join in the dance. A visual highlight was knuckle lasers which beamed out across the whole venue.
This production had the words crowd pleasing written all over it. Now pass me some more whisky.
David Spicer
Photographer: Neil Bennett
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