Writer: Kyron Bourke
Director: Rhiann Jeffrey
Kyron Bourke and Teatro Nua create an absolutely entrancing atmosphere in the Boys’ School at Smock Alley Theatre with No Citation. Upon entering the space the audience is treated to Bourke on the keys with the lights low and the feel of an intimate piano bar, but it’s the use of this eclectic space with the trumpet player and drummer in the stone wall alcove windows and Maeve Smyth traipsing along the walkways raining judgement on our piano man that sets a truly spellbinding scene and opens the piece.
No Citation is the last night for piano man Jeremy D’Wolfe McCarthy, but he doesn’t know it yet. As he tries to serenade his audience he is interrupted by the ghosts of his past in the form of Smyth, who takes on the role of ‘all the women’, and Pádraig Dooney who plays Milton Midnight Hawkins, McCarthy’s long dead saxophonist friend. Over the course of 75 minutes the audience is treated to several original numbers interspersed with reminiscences of McCarthy’s checkered past. It’s a well designed multi-faceted performance that marries the cast’s extremely strong musical talents with a surprisingly poignant tale.
Bourke’s McCarthy jokes about how likeable he is, but it rings very true despite it being abundantly clear that he has lived the majority of his life as a rake. Though only a few vignettes are explored, they reveal a satisfying complexity to the character and Bourke flits between roguish and tortured with ease. Smyth and Dooney provide the movement, making good use of the Boys’ School varied spaces and performing several cabaret style dance numbers that work very well with the rest of the piece. The rapport between the trio is wonderful, there is chemistry and familiarity and contempt and humour, and it’s hard to choose who to look at when all three of them are on the stage. Dooney is excellent on the saxophone and his character’s love song is a touching gem, but Smyth steals the show by a hair, as the strongest actor of the three and the most magnetic presence on the stage, with a stunning voice to boot.
There is so much to recommend about this production; the music, the performances, the atmosphere, the story, it shouldn’t be missed. A perfect way to spend a cold November evening and one of the best things to grace the Boys’ School in some time.
Runs Until 24rd November 2024.
