The Dole Wide World – Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin

Writer: Rex Ryan

Director: Ian Tolan

Back in the wonderful Glass Mask Theatre at the Bestseller Café on Dawson Street for Rex Ryan’s nattily titled, The Dole Wide World. You might presume this play speaks to the challenges and vagaries of life for the unemployed. It does not. Instead, we bear witness to the psychotic episode of a troubled young mother and the attempts made by a flawed psychiatrist to resolve an explosive situation.

Tara Cush has returned her character Vivienne to the Intreo Centre on Parnell Street where she had worked two years previously. She stands on one side of a white wooden partition dividing the stage, watching through the perspex windows as a man enters the waiting room. He is number 527. An overturned chair tells us something is amiss. Where is the rest of the staff? Where are the other patrons?

What follows is an hour long over and back between an agitated Vivienne and the ‘creepy Motherfucker’. “Why on earth would a girl go for a sandwich with a weird stranger?”, even if he “just wants to chat”. Vivienne is “not well, you know”. She’s suffering the ill-effects of her swine flu jab at 15 years of age. She’ll be “getting her settlement on Monday”.

Neill Fleming is the twice divorced Justin. Turns out that while he has his own demons, he is not, in fact, a stalker or a magician but Vivienne’s forensic psychiatrist. “The reason you’re here is my failure. This has all happened before.”

While the play features some interesting asides such as the crying of a baby in the background, a bullet-proof vest and some dubious cigarettes, the exhaustive dialogue and implausible plot don’t quite translate to the stage. There are elements missing. It feels like a first draft that needs brainstorming and revision.

Cush manages to augment every positive aspect of her role. Her performance as the “Queen of the dole office” is excellent. Fleming, though at times shouty, makes a valiant fist of an equally apprehensive and frustrated Justin.

Frank Sinatra sings us out as Vivienne succumbs to Justin’s coercion. Listening to Summer Wind while enjoying a glass of red wine and some delicious tapas, it’s hard not to tip your hat to Rex Ryan and the success he has made of Glass Mark Theatre. They do tremendous work. The Dole Wide World is just not their best presentation to date.

Runs Until November 23rd 2024.