Revelations
We presented Revelations by Darren Donohue
in Project as part of the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival 2003. The
show ran for a week at 6.45pm; tickets were €11 and €9;
the running time was 1 hour 15 minutes. It was directed by Peter
Hussey and featured Nick Devlin (Man
1), Paul Keeley (Man 2) and Darren
Donohue (Man 3). The set was designed and constructed
by Ciarán Aspell. The show was stage
managed by Keith Burke. Lighting was designed
and rigged by Ciarán Aspell, and sound was designed and
operated by Peter Hussey. Production Assistant was Steve
Gunn.
This play is the fourth in our series of anti-sentimental
theatre pieces in which we aim to create theatre that does
not rely exclusively on emotional or intellectual engagement
for it to make sense to the audience. The pieces aim to engage
with the audience’s imagination as much as with their
heart and with their head. We find absurdist drama to be an
excellent vehicle for this exploration, and so, many of the
pieces are influenced by Beckett, Ionesco and Camus.
Revelations was first presented as part of ‘Sucking Stones:
three plays after Beckett’ in Riverbank in February 2002.
It is inspired by Endgame and also by Edward Bond’s
The Crime of The Twenty-First Century (a play we presented
in 2001).
Synopsis
A world in ashes. A hide-out in the deserted tenements. An
old man commits an atrocity. A young man discovers it. Age and
treachery is pitted against youth and skill.
Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Endgame this lyrical
play concerns the reminiscences of a chair-bound old man (Man
1 - Devlin) who is attended by another old man, his keeper (Man
2 – Keeley). We realise that all is not as it appears
in this world, and that something dreadful is happening outside.
We are in the aftermath of a war or catastrophe of some sort.
The army is in control of the country, and they are clearing
out buildings, ‘cleaning up’ the streets. Soon they
will be here, at this block of flats. It also becomes clear
that Man 2 has been keeping Man 1 a prisoner here, having apparently
broken his legs and confined him to a wheelchair. Man 1 is desperate
for company, and although Man 1 never talks to him, in fact
hates him, Man 2 is happy enough with this situation. As he
says “Together we have a chance of happiness. Alone, we
have nothing. Except regret.” He fusses irritatingly around
Man 1, locking him into a co-dependent relationship of which
he is undisputedly in control.
Their world is disturbed by the arrival of Man 3 (Donohue)
who has been blinded by the army, is on the run, and wants to
get to the seaside where he has heard some people are starting
to build a new, better world. Man 2, however, traps him and
binds him to a chair in the flat so that he doesn’t escape,
all the while trying to ‘housetrain’ him. Things
come to a head, though, when Man 1 intervenes and puts Man 3
out of his misery. By now it is too late to leave and the army
are upon them.
The play ends with the army about to knock down their door
while they have utterly no power to defend themselves.
Despite the bleak plot, the dialogue is sharp and often very
funny.
As with all Crooked House plays, an unpublished copy of the
script is available by request.
Irish Times Review
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