Satire on Cold War era dictator state has unsettling contemporary feel

The President at the Gate Theatre, Dublin until March 24

Olwen Fouéré and Hugo Weaving in The President. Photo: Ros Kavanagh

Katy Hayes

This funny and serious show hits like a bolt of energy. It deals with weighty themes: a dictator is ruling an unnamed central European state. An assassination attempt has killed the president’s bodyguard and also the first lady’s beloved dog; the household is reeling. Premiered in 1975, Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard’s sly satire had a particular relevance then, with Europe settling into a tense post WWII east/west split across authoritarian/liberal lines. Bernhard was lobbing his comedy into this uneasy polity.

We are equally uneasy now; there is again war in eastern Europe and old land disputes are resurfacing. Hugo Weaving and Olwen Fouéré, as the president and the first lady, match each other in superb performances. They are like forces of nature, bad whirlwinds who eat up all available oxygen. The other characters say little or nothing — nobody crosses the bosses in a dictatorship. But the almost-silent secondary characters make a big impact: Julie Forsyth as the maid holds on to her dignity in a clever, flinching performance. Kate Gilmore, as the president’s mistress, finds her own little rebellion at an offstage gambling table.