AINE... (tigone)

EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL 2007 REVIEW

AINE... (tigone)

HWS Rembick Project

Written and directed by Adam Howard

Assisted by Jamey Gallagher

Assistant Produced by Nora Tillman

August 3^rd, 5^th, 9^th, 13^th 16^th at 18:15 hrs

Rocket at Demarco Roxy Art Venue 115

ADAM HOWARD'S adaptation of Sophocles' classical Greek drama to troubles-torn Belfast in the Seventies is a telling reminder of the horrors from which we have only recently escaped. 

Set in a dingy drinking club, Charlie is the local IRA hard man. He sits drinking and playing cards all day, laying down the law – his law – to the locals. Charlie is not a man to be crossed.  He had a vicious temper, so his fearful followers are wary of telling him what they think he doesn't want to hear.  If he is told bad news, he tends to react violently.The messenger must be paid by the Brits or the Huns.

 
Charlie's family seems cursed.  Dreadful things have happened at the hands of the British and the loyalists.  Charlie has become an embittered and paranoid bullyboy.  The cause is no longer 'The Cause' but his own personal power and status.

 
Charlie's bright nephew, Padraic, has gone off to university in Oxford. Despite a warning from his brother to keep up his guard and his identity he meets Deryn – an English Protestant.  They fall in love and Padraic decides to turn – to marry Deryn and convert to her faith - much to the chagrin of Padraic's brother and other family members.  Charlie is so furious he sets up an operation that kills Deryn. In hs attempt to rescue her, Padraic and then his brother fall dead at the hands of snipers.

 
Charlie forbids anyone to touch the traitor's body on pain of death. His niece Aine defies him against the earnest pleadings of her sister Isleen. Aine is a real spitfire. She knows what she has to do and will follow it through whatever the personal consequences. Things are not going to get any better for this cursed family...

 
The Californian youngsters who staged this play have really captured the essence of life in the closed-in back streets of Belfast at the height of the troubles. Some of the accents are more soft Cork than guttural Belfast but that's a minor niggle. This production sweats out passion, love and hate, devotion and defiance with just a lightening of humour around the edges. You can't fail to be moved by it.