Janet Moran's vigorous comedy revisits a bizarre episode from 1980s Ireland.
Abbey Theatre (Peacock Stage), Dublin Fringe Festival
Sep 10-15
My review of A Holy Show by Janet Moran coming up just as soon as I consecrate Russia to my immaculate heart ...
Back when it was under seal by the Vatican, the third secret of Fátima was quite the mystery. Among those desperate to hear its message: an ex-monk who, in 1981, highjacked an Aer Lingus flight to compel the Pope to release it.
The bizarre episode is revisited in Janet Moran’s vigorous new comedy for Mermaid Arts Centre, which begins with the highjacker describing his struggle with faith and, particularly, loneliness.
As director, Moran’s production, much like the efficient aviation design that inspires Molly O’Cathain’s set, is specially accommodating. Two actors - Caitríona Ennis and Patrick Moy - create everyone on board, from prying flight attendants to stressed passengers. A man whose life was interrupted by the Troubles is off to set roots elsewhere. Two honeymooners, rushed into matrimony with little intimacy, dread their wedding night. A professional woman endures her objectifying co-worker. They’re all good reasons to leave.
In a surreal move, we even get the Marian apparition at Fátima, complete with trippy AV design by Neil O’Driscoll.
Yet with 17 characters, the episodic script is scattered. Moran’s last play - the immensely uplifting Swing, co-written with Gavin Kostick, Peter Daly and Steve Blount - at least had two leads at its centre. A Holy Show only occasionally seems grounded, including Ennis’s astutely judged performance as an unmarried woman, recalling a tale of unsupervised romance in her youth.
Though there's much to admire when a declared miracle has slyly come to pass, this multiple-role comedy spreads itself thin.
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