A couple of years ago I found myself standing at the Black Box Theatre in Galway, shouting, applauding and cheering, wholly unsure what I'd experienced, but utterly convinced of its impact. So to find myself at the Pilch Studio to see this play again, this time the first student production of Enda Walsh's Ballyturk, I had a palpable sense of anticipation, and a little concern as to how Straight Face Theatre would carry this off. I shouldn't have worried!
The challenge is that Ballyturk is a physical, lyrical, poetic mix of thought, some rational and some less so, movement and dance (well cheesy 80s stuff, but that's Enda Walsh!) all wrapped up in rapid fire delivery and requiring deft execution. This is not a play for the faint hearted in the audience, nor can the cast be half-hearted in their execution of their roles.
The play is compromised of a single scene, centred on a room where two men (unnamed) inhabit their claustrophobic environment while we observe them as they rise, dress, eat and exercise to fill the time and space around them. The audience follow their journey as it evolves from the oddball and seemingly benign, tightening up with an almost inevitable sense of foreboding – although it is cleverly punctuated with moments of humour, some is physical comedy cleverly choreographed and some is achieved in a nod to another 'play for voices' by painting characters as caricatures from the mythical village of Ballyturk.
As if to verify this surreal environment, we hear conversations seeming to come from elsewhere but the men cannot speak to anyone outside the room. Two thirds of the way through the play this seemingly 'stable' situation is punctured but to say more would concede a plot spoiler. Suffice to say that what follows takes us inexorably towards Ballyturk's fateful denouement.
Director Fred Wienand said the play is 'Eclectic, Powerful and True' and in Seamus Lavan and Thomas Curzon his leads delivered what I believe the playwright imagined and this director sought from his actors. There was total commitment and stirring performances which packed a powerful emotional punch and so when I found myself standing, shouting, applauding and cheering this time I knew what I'd experienced and its impact. I hope this gets another run soon!