Sickle Moon Productions, 'TACTICS'

What starts as a believable examination on prejudices facing women in their professional lives becomes a disjointed murder cover up.  

Theatre Upstairs
Jun 17-28


I don't have time to write a full review of TACTICS by Jed de Brí and Finbarr Doyle.

This second play as part of Sickle Moon Productions' residency in Theatre Upstairs presents us with Medbh, a political candidate who is running to replace the seat of her deceased father. Nessa Matthews' considered performance instils the reality of perceptions and prejudices facing women in their professional lives. 

The play then takes a disjointed turn as Kieran Roche's flirtatious beau is revealed as an extramarital lover, then stabbed by the home-early-from-work husband played by Finbarr Doyle. The lunge for the knife is too great a leap, as nothing in Doyle's performance or the writing builds to the extraordinary decision. 

As with previous play Slippers, de Brí and Doyle write good dialogue but can't raise the action and retain credibility. "All my life I have done the right thing" says the person who is about to cover up a murder. 

TACTICS doesn't convince and it isn't original; It's hardly a revelation to Irish audiences that politicians are susceptible to corruption and cover ups.

What did everybody else think?