The Moat Club presents a magical Evening of One Act Plays featuring "Pullman Car Hiawatha" and "What's Left of the Flag" running this weekend
(Main picture: Actors Ellis Rafferty, Alina Ion and Brian Lyons from Pullman Car Hiawatha at The Moat Theatre's An Evening of One Act Plays)
By Kim O'Leary
The Moat Club provides a magical evening that casts a spell on the audience with it’s An Evening of One Act Plays running this weekend that is sure to delight both young and old.
Following on from the phenomenal success of their evening of One Acts in April 2017, the talented cast and crew of the Moat Club return to capture the undivided attention and interest of the audience in an entertaining and highly memorable evening with the presentation of two One Act plays; the comedic and spell-binding Pullman Car Hiawatha and the tense, gripping What’s Left of the Flag.
The two plays both raise very interesting questions that we often find ourselves reflecting on such as guilt, fear, belief in ourselves and a higher calling, with the protagonists facing some difficult decisions that may either change their worlds or themselves.
The first play is What’s Left of the Flag, and the opening scene introduces two men hiding out together in an abandoned building in Dublin, and instantly the audience questions their motives of doing so. The two men, Jacob and Yossi, are revealed to be highly-trained Mossad agents sent on a risky mission- to eliminate one of Gaza’s leading activists who is speaking at a rally nearby.
It quickly becomes evident that the two men are of very different characters; the less experienced Yossi is eager for some action, while his grim-faced companion Jacob is an experienced veteran on the edge of retirement. However, both Yossi and Jacob are haunted by the violence experienced in their home country of Israel and as they prepare to take the kill-shot, they become entangled in a conflict of ideas over their political views and morality amidst the age-old conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs.
At one point, Jacob tells a doubting Yossi: “To be a good Jew you must have a good conscience; to be a good Israeli you must have a good memory.” But the irony of the situation is that a shocked Yossi realises that he cannot take out their target as his conscience clashes with his mission, and this infuriates Jacob. “Success is the only acceptable outcome in a mission!” Jacob insists to Yossi who struggles to carry out his task, wondering aloud: “Is the whole world an enemy of Israel?”
The talented duo of Declan Reynolds (Yossi) and Brian Lyons (Jacob) provide a very convincing take on two agents sent to Dublin with their foreign accents right on point, and in some of the more light-hearted moments they reflect on and joke about Ireland’s terrible take-out food, poor weather, as well as voicing their frustration that Ireland has incorporated many elements of English culture including the native language into its own culture despite the historic conflict between the two countries.
Under the excellent direction of John Lennon and the fast-paced writing of Jimmy Murphy, there is a real tension between the characters and their mission as each of them struggles to complete their task and the rather claustrophobic and untidy surroundings contributes to the sense of danger, with the possibility that they could be captured at any moment and imprisoned in an Irish jail cell.
Declan Reynolds’s portrayal of Yossi is deeply relatable as his eagerness for action turns to horror and dread when he realises that his task is not without dire consequences, while Brian Lyons’s character Jacob is haunted by personal loss and spurred on by his devotion to his home country of Israel. It soon becomes clear to both men that in a time of war, it is impossible to retain a good conscience.
Meanwhile, there is a brief interval before the second play gets underway. Pullman Car Hiawatha is a quirky play originally written by American author Thornton Wilder and it takes the audience on a supernatural and surreal journey through the American landscape along with its train passengers as other-worldly forces are at play, suspending time as the train travels from New York to Chicago in December 1930.
The set is simple yet imaginative, with chalk lines drawn to separate the compartments, with the sounds of the train achieved through impressive lighting and sound aesthetics. Meanwhile, a special mention must also be given to the fantastic 1930s era costumes which really help to set the mood as well as the cast’s brilliant American accents.
The cast of 13 are led by an enigmatic Stage Manager who narrates their different thoughts and emotions as they undertake their journey by train for varied reasons, and there’s a sense of mischief-making as the passengers find their journey disrupted and the only true measures of existence are life and death.
The play is brought to life under the sharp and innovative direction of Rachel Lally who gives her own spin on the production, with the talented cast members enthusiastically providing the audience with a very entertaining journey that can make the audience question the realities of life.
This fantastic double bill of plays is not to be missed and both What’s Left of the Flag and Pullman Car Hiawatha will run for three nights at the Moat Theatre in Naas until Saturday, 14 April starting at 8pm each evening with tickets costing €10.