Six actors fill stage with a large cast

May 31 2007 By Gail-Nina Anderson, The Journal

Dublin by Lamplight at Northern Stage until Saturday

It's Dublin, 1904 and while the King's visit animates the city, there are plots bubbling just beneath its surface.

Yes, revolutionary outrage is in the air, but it's also the opening night for Ireland's National Theatre (of Ireland) if only the lease gets signed, the rent gets paid, the leading lady gets out of jail and the manager recovers from being mugged.

This isn't quite history, more fantasised re-enactment with all the relevant ingredients under different names.

The play grew out of a project from Dublin's Corn Exchange company, drawing heavily on ensemble workshop techniques that intensify characterisation to the point that six actors and no props can fill the stage with a large cast and an entire city.

This virtuosity, a dynamic physical engagement with a shifting range of roles, is vastly aided by a pianist who highlights the mood in the manner of silent cinema accompaniment.

The performers all wear make-up stylised beyond the individual and operate in a mode that combines melodrama, Music Hall and mime.

The words are important too, especially when we are privileged to watch a rousing mythic play-within-a-play that loses its hero and doubles its leading lady. And there are lots of sneaky literary references, for the attentive listener.

I do wonder, though, whether Stage 1 is the best venue for a play with a cabaret feel of intimacy about it. This would have worked better in a smaller, more enclosed space and played without an interval to break its verbal and narrative rhythms.