Edinburgh Fringe 2024
A Celebration of Father Ted
Joe Rooney
Genre: Absurd Theatre, Comedy
Venue: Le Monde Shanghai
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
An enjoyable and spirited hour that makes you nostalgic for great telly. Written and performed by Joe Rooney, who lit up an episode of Father Ted with his awkwardly delinquent bad boy vibes.
Review
Actor/comedian Joe Rooney, aka Father Damo, is clearly having a hoot of a time celebrating his fleeting appearance in Father Ted. Your fun factor will largely depend on how game you are to join in and your knowledge of the legendary, ground breaking 90’s TV sitcom.
Rooney’s energy and quick wit lifts the show above a reverent homage to his past glory. When offered ‘orange’ as an impossible rhyme he quips ‘I’m not putting a protestant word in a song’ and the Catholic/Prod divide permeates much of his material.
The audience is divided into Father Jacks and Mrs Doyles for a quiz which is where the Ted boffins score on the details. ‘Oasis or Blur?’ Oasis! There’s a (gender irrelevant) Lovely Girls competition involving the making of a cheese sandwich and an attempted singalong of My Lovely Horse – tricky one that.
Aside from material about the show we learn a bit about Rooney’s upbringing and the limitations of being young in Ireland when so much was banned; cue a surprisingly frank but excruciating sex education film delivered by a coiffured lady in a bungalow. God is everywhere, of course.
Clips from classic episodes never tire but are hard to see on a wonky screen in an over-lit nightclub space with poor sightlines. The show would benefit from Rooney letting us in how it was to work with Dermot Morgan, Ardal O’Hanlon, Pauline McLynn and Frank Kelly. His performance as Ardal’s mischievous young priest chum remains a highlight of the series.
But as a working comedian and performer there’s the imperative to show his chops in musical impressions (Bowie and Cash particularly strong) some rather questionable jokes and overlong Bohemian Rhapsody karaoke that really seems to go on, go on, go on.
An enjoyable and spirited hour that makes you nostalgic for great telly.
