Lobsters at the Project Arts Centre and Mermaid Arts Centre Run concluded

Making a theatre show out of non-narrative ingredients is a challenge. When the work is good, it flies, but when it falters, it doesn’t have a dramatic arc to hold it aloft and can collapse with a noisy thud. Even if some sections are good, the whole seems to suffer particularly from the poorer parts.
Nyree Yergainharsian has created a 46-minute documentary-style theatrical meditation on the subject of dating and mating, based on first-person testimonies. It is inspired by the idea that lobsters mate for life. Or do they? Yergainharsian and fellow actors Brian Bennett and Peter Newington start the show from three socially distanced desks. Set and costume design by Eugenia Genunchi creates a rich informal arty-tech office feel, with grid shapes on screens and spotty socks. The production is self-consciously theatrical and makes play with its pandemic-inspired artificiality.
Each actor reads from testimonies about romance, dates or marriage proposals, some during the pandemic, others not. After about 15 minutes, in a section where Bennett and Newington share a coffee, things heat up dramatically. The two performers drift between reading and saying the lines; they seem to be genuinely talking to each other as well as delivering a script. It feels almost like a date. Several realities are occurring at once and an exciting theatrical energy briefly ignites.
A section where a cake is assembled in a mock cookery programme aims for an absurdist feel but falls short. The constant hand-sanitising is amusing but wears thin. The camera starts to tilt to one side early on and falls over; this is funny but later technical problems are overly contrived.
Co-directed by Yergainharsian and Jocelyn Clarke, the show is stabbing at the material rather than commanding it. The final section with talking heads is rewarding. We get a repeat of some of the earlier testimonies but cast in a new light. The show is at its best when it focuses most tightly on the core subject matter of these affecting anecdotes, while the surrounding paraphernalia works less well. Like a bad date, the show makes the mistake trying too hard.

Historical killing brought vividly to life

Bloody Phoenix
Bewley’s Café Theatre at the Phoenix Park until June 12

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Matthew O’Brien and Melissa Nolan in Bloody Phoenix

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In 1882, the chief secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and Thomas Henry Burke, the permanent undersecretary, were assassinated on Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park. Writer-director Michael James Ford spins a diverting 45 minutes from these events, which became known as the Phoenix Park Murders; the show is performed in promenade around the murder site.
A film director (Matthew O’Brien) and a producer (Melissa Nolan) have a meeting to hash out details about an forthcoming feature movie on the subject. O’Brien’s director is full of impressive self-regard; his grand visual ideas are constantly challenged by the producer’s budget constraints. Nolan is earnest and deliberately unstarry in her myriad ways of saying no. They consider casting options with Kate Winslet, Gemma Arterton and Ciarán Hinds all getting serious consideration.
The contrivance works better than you might imagine. The director discusses camera angles on the key assassination action and the events are vividly conveyed. But the major hole in the script is the lack of a story between the two protagonists. Despite engaging performances, there never emerges a sense of their own personal dramas and the characters don’t fully escape from being mouthpieces for history.