Ardal O'Hanlon is a 90s icon in his own right, having played Dougal in the incomparable Father Ted television series of the 90s. He is one of three actors in Conor McPherson's Port Authority (at Southwark Playhouse until 18 February) a play that shares none of that show's insular surreality, but instead evokes a couple of other 90s cultural icons: Roddy Doyle's Barrytown novels of the earthy Rabbitte family; and Alan Bennett's Talking Heads bittersweet monologues made for the BBC.
Kevin (Andrew Nolan) tells us of his laddish days sharing a house with the girl he secretly loves and who secretly loves him. There's boozing, brawling and The Bangers, a band of Kevin's mates gigging in Dublin pubs. Dermot (O'Hanlon) recounts his mysterious spell in the entourage of The Bangers (by now rivalling U2 as Ireland's biggest band) and his swift return to the wife and family whose love he returns with a studied indifference. Joe (John Rogan) sits in his wheelchair in an old people's home observing the little battles won and lost in his quasi-prison and reflecting on a love that might have been, but never was. The three stories threaten to come together, but never really do, linked by theme rather than plot.
There are moments of humour, moments of poignancy and moments of philosophical reflection in the 90 minutes all-through Rhapsody of Words production, but director Tom Attenborough takes a big risk in having the three men simply sit on discarded wooden pallets, telling their stories ten minutes or so at a time, before the spotlight shifts to the next man, who picks up his narrative where he left off. The absence of movement, this almost anti-theatrical approach, shifts all the attention on to the script, which doesn't quite sparkle enough to keep the actors afloat for the full ninety minutes.
That is not to say that there isn't much to admire in the play's dissection of men's inability to seize the chances that love offers, but I longed to hear from the women too. Surely they were not as passive as they are presented by the man who didn't give her a chance to love him (Kevin); the man who didn't care if he was loved or not (Dermot); and the man who feared God too much to do anything more than suffer in silence (Joe). Eleven years after the play's first production, it might be time to hear the women's stories too.
