Cónal Creedon’s double bill shows this writer’s gift for bringing light to dark places – The Irish Times

The Cure

Cork Arts Theatre

★★★★☆

Two productions a fortnight apart showcase Cónal Creedon’s gift for bringing light to dark places (and coincide with his win of the World Culture Council’s 2024 Leonardo da Vinci World Prize for the Arts). These plays provide the evidence, if needed, as they review the originality and liveliness of his work for the stage.

With The Cure, presented by Hiya Fella Productions, Creedon’s passionate affiliation with the vernacular unfolds as something akin to a testament. Navigating by nose, Ciaran Bermingham’s Seán follows the city center trail that will take him to the early pub for an early morning pint on what could be described as a Christmas road. With his head, as he says, boiling with drink, his wandering thoughts are distilled into the disappointments of a lifetime.

In this memoir, it’s the delivery rather than the narrative that punctures familiar truths with the comedy of world-weary skepticism. Bermingham’s brow furrowed in derision to hint at the unspoken smile. In a voice of rust and disdain, he questions change and decay, as many of the landmarks of his morning observation now serve as defunct outposts, suggesting a bygone life.

So far it has not changed, however, the fluidity bruised with the local idiom that enriches a monologue of reminiscence, revelation and, perhaps, recovery. Directing this brilliantly balanced performance of poignant comedy, on a walk through a landscape that in its self-discovery is more pilgrimage than meander, Al Dalton maintains a measured pace as Bermingham plays many roles, all dense with partnership and commitment.

The cure is at Cork Arts Theatre until Saturday, October 26;

After Luke

Cork Arts Theatre

★★★★☆

In After Luke, Creedon’s rearrangement of the parable of the prodigal son, his free-wheeling narration is anything but reverent, veering into hilarity as the soundtrack and lighting crackle in synchronicity. This presentation of Lost in the Canon reminds us that the evangelist himself left some gaps in his parable, including a backstory involving the prodigal’s mother, which was otherwise completely lost in the canon.

First performed in 2005, After Luke could be called the unauthorized version where Son, never named here, clings to the peace and rhythm of his father’s motor repair business and moves to through life with his boots on. Younger Maneen, who has wider ambitions, shines in England only to return penniless and temporarily humbled.

The possibility of caricature is not entirely avoided, for both young men are not so much overwhelmed as overwhelmed. Too much is made of Son’s sloppy simplicity, the locality and, perhaps, the gloating manipulation of the prodigal Maneen. Despite this superfluity, Niall Holland and Simon McKeon’s performances seethe with anger and resentment, while Leon Danza’s light directorial touch balances the farce with the gospel’s own sobriety.

It’s not often that a negative ending is considered satisfactory, but the vigor and hilarity inherent in this treatment creates an appetite for alternatives when, having played the parent, Mike O’Dowd’s Dadda abdicates in weary acknowledgment that the boys , after all, they will be boys.

After Luke has finished his career in Cork Arts Theatre