This Lime Tree Bower

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The award winning play, written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson and directed by Cait McGann, takes its name from a poem "This Lime-tree Bower My Prison" by Coleridge who found himself confined underneath such a tree unable to enjoy the joys of nature being enjoyed by his friends.

I saw it at the New Farm Nash Theatre. The play is set in Ireland in early 1990's prior to its economic boom.

The script is a series of interwoven monologues which were delivered very powerfully and with much humour and passion by its three actors who were always on stage.

It centres on the lives of Joe (an upper high school boy on the edge of adulthood), his older brother Frank who works in their father's chip shop, and Ray a lecturer in philosophy and the male interest in the life of Joe and Frank's sister, Carmel.

In this production, the three characters are played by Henry Young (Joe), Stephen O'Grady (Frank) and Peter Blakelock (Ray).

Joe opens the play telling of his life as a school boy in search of adventures, especially sexual ones, enjoyed by his school friend, Damien, whom he greatly admires. His opening monologue is followed by Ray who depicts a colourful and self-centred life of drinking and casual sex fitted in around his lecturing job. Then Frank tells of his life and work at his father's chip shop and its frustrations. It is Frank's plan to settle his father's debt with a contemptuous local councillor and bookie, Simple Simon, which brings the play's three characters together and drives its plot.

In the hands of the three performers, the dramatic tension builds very effectively as the different roles which Joe, Frank and Ray take in Frank's plan unfolds. In the end, the very appreciative audience were left with the impression that Frank's plan was a 'just robbery'. At the same time, the darker message conveyed is that while casual sex and lust may be acceptable, rape is not as the audience learns Joe's friend Damien has been charged with this crime and is no longer Joe's school boy hero.

The Director, cast and production crew are to be congratulated on a superbly presented performance. The timing and pathos of the actors' delivery of their monologues draw in the audience captivating us in the lives and adventure of three men in a small town Ireland fomr start to finish.

It is a short season with only four remaining performances at the New Farm Nash Theatre. Three of these are on 6 pm Sunday 16, 23, and 30 June at 6pm. The fourth is on 7.30 pm Saturday 15 June in raise funds for breast cancer, a condition for which the play's director, Cait McGann, has herself been receiving treatment.

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