Culture This article is more than 18 years oldReviewThe Race of the Ark Tattoo
This article is more than 18 years oldBewley's Cafe, DublinThe ingenious conceit behind this play by American writer David Hancock is that it is never the same performance twice. The playing area is done up like a flea market, and a sloppily lettered sign announces: "Lecture by Mr P Foster to start at 1.10pm." The solo actor, David Heap, has an open, childlike manner, but quickly explains why: he is a former foster child who has suffered permanent memory loss because of drugs he took to control his temper.
Audience members pull bits of junk out of a toy camper van proffered by Foster - his "story ark" - and he tells us about the artifacts, aided by decrepit cue cards. These were passed down, Foster tell us, from his foster father, Homer Phinney. The audience slowly realise that Phinney is partly present on stage: by changing his vocal register, Heap switches back and forth between the father's and the son's accounts of past events.
Many of the stories initially have an idyllic quality, but Hancock's skillful use of language and imagery create a sense of menace. We hear repeatedly about violent acts done to animals; Foster talks lovingly about a girlfriend, then says he sometimes still makes love to her even though she's in a coma. By the time Foster sniffs a tub of Vaseline and remembers his foster father crying, a hideous history of abuse has been suggested, all the more effectively because it has been done indirectly. The show is like being trapped in someone's post-traumatic stress disorder. Or among the living dead - but that is counterpointed by the amazing aliveness required of Heap, who performs a different show every day depending on the order in which props are handed to him. He and his director, David Horan, must have nerves of steel. This show is a prism of contradictions, a little gem of theatricality.
· Until October 29. Box office: 00 353 86 878 4001.
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