Writer: John Morton
Directors: Dylan Kennedy & Shane Dempsey
Everyone has to scooch down to make room in The Boys School at Smock Alley Theatre for today’s matinee of John Morton’s black comedy TABOO. The venue is full to bursting.
In the opening scene, ‘Lily’ sprays copious amounts of air freshener as she dances around to the rich baritone of Lou Rawls singing You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine. The dining room is spick and span with a table laid for two. She goes over her checklist as she anticipates the arrival of ‘Tom’ – “Open the door, invite him in, ask him to wipe his feet…”. “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
The doorbell rings. Her date is early and he chatters nervously when offering his apologies. Lily is jittery too and although Tom is handing her a bouquet of lilies and a bottle of wine she is brusquely asking him to “give your shoes a good wipe there”. And while he compliments her “very retro” home she wants him to “just give it another wipe”.
Lily’s hypervigilance around germs is because she was “sick for a good while growing up”. Hilarity ensues as the awkward duo attempt to enjoy the delicious three course meal Lily has prepared. She has bought all of her ingredients in the supermarket where Tom works as a “product placement technician”, and where they had met. He bemoans the fact that he stacks shelves for a living when he might have been “a pilot, a doctor, a surgeon or a barista”.
Spilled wine has the hostess dabbing his privates while her guest squirms – it is “a bit early on a first date to be rubbing my crotch”. No, he cannot use the bathroom to tidy himself up because it is “broken” and there is “a whole load of maintenance needed”. Directing her visitor to the ensuite, Lily warns him not to “go rooting through her knickers drawer”. Things take a dark turn when Tom enters the wrong room and discovers they are not alone in the house.
John Morton nails the art of writing bleak comedy. He has taken taboo subjects and wrung every last scrap of humour from them. While the main plot line is improbable, absurd and perfect for dramatisation, the protagonists back-stories are discomfiting. Tom’s, in particular, is unsettling and jars somewhat with the overall farce-like tone of the performance.
Husband and wife, Dylan Kennedy and Jenny Fennessy are, quite literally, a dream team. Fennessy’s comic timing in the role of Lily is impeccable and Kennedy is wholly convincing as her equally socially inept counterpart. Their acting is superb and added to Jack and James Aherne’s realistic set, we find ourselves so immersed in this first date which “has been kind of like a load of dates” that the 80 minutes running time passes in a flash.
The play is skillfully balanced. We laugh at the likes of “Aids Mary” and her “sex massacre” rampage, sympathise with Tom and Lily’s vulnerabilities, champion their burgeoning romance, and grip the edge of our seats with plot twists.
“Mr Fussy Breeches” and “Little Miss Porcelain” dance us out to Fleetwood Mac while spraying further copious amounts of air freshener. And while “old houses have old smells”, I’ll leave you to wonder at the need for it.
Reviewed 14th June 2025.
The Review's Hub Score
Fabulously absurd!
