Beat

Beat, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin – Dublin Fringe Festival 2018

Writer: Fionntan Larney
Director: Dominic O’Brien

Beat. starts out as a raucous and rude rap musical drama. Full of pills and alcohol friends A and B are hungover after a night out. How much can they remember? The unconscious B may have finally taken things too far this time: after too many pills he ended up unconscious on the floor shouting at A’s girlfriend Sarah. or at least that’s what he’s told he did. Although he was the one leading the charge it is A that seems to experience most of the consequences. After his girlfriend walks out, tired of waiting for the day he will pull himself together, he also loses his job. As his day goes from bad to worse B sails through an interview high on cocaine and adrenalin. He hatches a plan to make his friend feel better: the session to end all sessions. However, a confrontation in a club with someone from the past triggers a turning point in the narrative. The characters are suddenly thrown into a new light.

Martha Breen changes characters many times throughout the performance. She started off introducing the show with bombast before becoming the long-suffering boss, the school bully, the ex-girlfriend and more. Dressed in black and white Breen became each new character with ease and fluidity. Harry Higgins and Fionntan Larney excel as friends struggling to say what they mean to each other. Their final scenes together are emotionally wrought and very well done. A changing lightscape with colourful strobe lighting is complemented by pulsating, beating, heavy music. Together they act to change the mood and propel the narrative forward.

This reviewer has never seen an audience rise to their feet, as one complete body, so quickly and seamlessly as they did at the end of Beat. Without a doubt one of the finest shows of the festival.

Image: Contributed