Writer: Simon Stephens
Director: Rex Ryan
Glass Mask Theatre’s new play is A Slow Fire by Simon Stephens, whose A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time starts at Smock Alley next week. This is Stephens’ original work, indeed this production is its world premiere, and it’s testament to Glass Mask’s sway that they can attract such a high-profile author to the back of the Bestseller Café on Dawson Street. Directed by Rex Ryan, the play has some significant peaks, but also flaws that can outweigh the vitality and coherence of its narrative.
Ashton (Ross Gaynor) and Reece (Ian Toner) are holed up together after the end of the world; former colleagues at a college, with the former a professor and the latter a porter, they pass the time by acting out scenes from their lives. One plays themselves, the other the role of a loved one – Ashton is Reece’s distant teenage son, while Reece plays Ashton’s dying mother, and so on. The premise is strong, with echoes of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play –people who are lost or abandoned, and so resort to elaborate fantasies, or sink into ever more elaborate pretence; perhaps Joan Didion said it best, “we tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
The issue comes with the fact that not much more is done with this premise than show us this hall of mirrors – Pressley (Fionn Ó Loingsigh) arrives near the end of the first act, adding dynamism and tension, disturbing their careful routines of Ashton and Reece’s life together. As a viewer his presence is at first welcome, but it slips into the predictable, with a lengthy persuasion scene that any viewer should be able to foresee the end of.
This is not to suggest there isn’t much to enjoy – the performances are all superb, especially Gaynor’s. He brings a rawness and humanity to a role that could easily slide into detachment and nihilism. Andrew Clancy’s set and Jess Fitzsimon Kane’s lighting were simple, yet wonderfully atmospheric. Music and voiceover were used sparingly, but always effectively. There were 90 really enjoyable minutes in here, the problem was that the play couldn’t sustain the 120 they ended up with. The bagginess and the cracks began to show, which was a regrettable way to end such a promising idea.
Runs Until 7th Feb 2026.
