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Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

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For a show called The Frogs, there isn’t much amphibian activity in the piece. But being a show with music by Stephen Sondheim, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s a critical theatrical piece. But like Sondheim’s final musical playing at the National Theatre, while it may not be a musical that fills you with provocative thoughts, it’s a fast-paced romp through hell and back to save the world for the sake of arts. With rousing choruses, thrilling choreography and plenty of cheap laughs, what more can you want from the theatre? It’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) . There isn’t much to the plot, except that Dionysus (Dan Buckley), disillusioned by the state of a divided world, and his sidekick and slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale), cross the river Styx to the underworld to find a great writer who they can return to the world to teach the world about life. He has his mind set on bringing back George Bernard Shaw until he hears the poetry of Shakespeare.  This v...

Unfinished business: Continuity @Finborough @Continuityplay

 
It's an odd feeling to laughing along with man about plant a bomb... But such is the world you're drawn into with Gerry Moynihan's Continuity, currently at the Finborough Theatre.

What's chilling about this this monologue is how it hooks you in to the story . Here the cause is taken as a given. Unquestioned, unflinching and ongoing... The Good Friday Agreement is the thin veneer of peace that conceals what's really happening on the ground. The ongoing rough justice, score settling and resistance that is largely unreported.

The story involves Padraig (Paul Kennedy), a member of the Continuity IRA. He is dedicated to the cause. But after meeting a girl from Barcelona, he soon finds his colleagues questioning him  about his commitment. And he begins to wonder about it himself.




Kennedy's Padriag is an engaging storyteller as he moves from cracking jokes to the details of planting a bomb. His likability catches you off guard as the story takes a darker turn. But he's also effective in bringing to life the world he inhabits - the humanity and inhumanity of it all.

The space of the Finborough, which is also being used as an Edwardian drawing room for Just To Get Married, is transformed by May Hannah Davies into something darker here. The drop cloths and moody lighting (and maybe the smell of fresh paint from the recent theatre refurb) emphasise the murky nature of the story.

Underscoring the tense mood with samples of news reports and an eclectic choice of music is Anna Clock's sound design.

Naturally being a story about Northern Ireland, violence and death feature throughout. It's enough to make you wonder what frictionless post-Brexit solution will be necessary to bring this closer to a resolution.

Directed by Shane Dempsey, Continuity is at the Finborough Theatre on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday matinees until 19 August.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎



Photos by Gary Wolf

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