FringeReview Ireland 2024

Bullied

Dublin Touring Theatre

Genre: Comedic, Drama, Dramedy, European Theatre, Family, Theatre

Venue: Bewley's Café Theatre

Festival: FringeReview Ireland

Low Down

Review

Bewley’s Café Theatre is exactly what it says it is.  A small upstairs theatre in Dublin’s (if not Ireland’s) most iconic coffee house.  Long before international coffee chains started to pop up at every street corner, Bewley’s was a meeting place for visitors and Dubliners from all walks alike.  It opened its doors in 1927 when ancient Egypt was all the rage in Europe and its gorgeous façade certainly is proof of that.  A landmark on Grafton Street it has offered weary shoppers a refuge from the proverbial Irish rain for nearly a century and since 1999 also an excellent lunchtime theatre.

As with many upstairs rooms and cellar theatres, the stage is incredibly small. There is hardly room to swing the proverbial cat and not surprising most plays that are performed here are two-handers.  This play is no exception with seasoned theatre all-rounder Vinnie McCabe not only taking the role of grandad, but also directing the play and young Shauna Brennan, who is currently polishing her acting skills at Coláiste Dhúlaigh College of Performing Arts, taking the role of his teenage granddaughter Anna.

The play opens with some Belcanto opera playing softly in the background. An older man has fallen asleep in his chair whilst reading his newspaper, snoring to great comic effect.  The furniture in the cramped room is old and never was top rage. Yet the faded upholstery with its colourful crochet throw oozes the security of a loving working class home  He wakes abruptly when an alarm goes off and a dog barks madly.  The alarm was set off by Anna, still in her school uniform coming home late from hanging out with her friends.  Grandad has been a widower for two years and since his wife’s passing, he is accustomed to switching on the alarm when it is getting dark.  She’s staying with her grandad during her mid-term break so her parents can ‘sort things out’ among themselves at a fancy hotel.  We sense immediately that this set up is not a common occurrence.  One senses instantly that grandad would love her to visit more often.  He clearly feels left out of family life with his grandson away at college and their mum, his daughter, being busy trying to rescue her marriage to a wealthy man. Grandad would like to reconnect with Anna, but Anna is constantly on her phone.  There are the frequent calls from Conor, but we have no idea who this Conor is, as well as many messages that need to be read.  All of his attempts to involve her in his life or find out more about hers, are blocked by Anna.  Something is not right, but what?  The next morning before grandad gets anywhere with his sensitive probing, Anna is off to meet her friends and leaves him to sort out his gas bill.  This proves rather more difficult than envisaged due to the automated service and the fact that the account is still in his late wife’s name.  A sense of self-recognition swings in the giggles of the audience, most who are not far off grandad’s age. It was easier when you could just pay in person and the audience mumbles agreement.

Anna is suddenly back, visible upset.  Despite being interrupted by another call from Conor, this time grandad will get to the bottom of what’s up.  She barricades and grandad blames poor Conor.  Anna swears it is not him and that he is actually a good guy.  In defending Conor she is forced to open up and tells grandad that some girls in her new school are mean to her.  She doesn’t even know why.  Maybe it is because she is really good at soccer, maybe because one of her art pieces got picked for a school exhibition, maybe because she is dyslexic or maybe it is because one of the girls fancies Conor, who is really just a very good mate of hers, nothing more.

Anna feels left alone and that no one can help her.  Her older brother is away at college. Her parents are too occupied with each other to even notice her.  She left all her friends behind when she changed schools and clearly she thinks grandad is from a different time and can’t understand her.  However, that’s where she is wrong.  Grandad tells her about an issue that happen to his late wife, her grandma, before they got married.  She was bullied at work, even though back then they didn’t call it that.  In a time before social media gossip went from ear to ear instead of mobile to mobile, but it spread equally fast.  Grandma, with grandad’s support stood up for herself and sent the bully packing.  Inspired by this story Anna with grandad’s encouragement does the same.  He lends her his phone to ring the bullies’ leader with a speech they prepared together.  Anna will escalate the situation if the bullying doesn’t stop.  This might be the end of the bullying or the start of a battle, but Anna has now grandad at her side and feels strong.  They celebrate by going out for a fish & chips lunch, leaving their phones behind.

McCabe’s is perfect for the role, so much so that one suspects Harnett wrote it for him.  This grandad is physically a bit slow, maybe even a bit frail, but that glint in his eyes betrays a still sharp mind.  McCabe tells so much of the story with every tiny gesture, look and fascial expression it is hard not to be mesmerised by his performance.  He uses minimalism to great effect to portray this man, who is much more than he seems at first.  Brennan is a thoroughly believable sixteen year old.  Not because she is only a few years older than Anna, but because she has an artistic maturity that enables her to comprehend the emotional turmoil of a girl that age better than any sixteen year old could probably understand it herself.  Her well timed big gestures, so familiar from stroppy teenaged girls, are a stark contrast to McCabe’s sophisticated quietness.  Brennan makes us feel the anxiety and despair the bullies cause Anna, but also the relief when with grandad’s help she finds herself at ease again.  The deadpan delivery of the comic lines by both actors made the audience often erupt with spontaneous laughter.  Lighting Design by Colm Maher and Sound Design by Ophelia McCabe.

Harnett and McCabe founded Dublin Touring Theatre, whose production this is.  Their aim is to ‘create relevant and exciting work that both entertains and asks questions’.  They have certainly hit their target with Bullied.  Generally a very funny play with plenty of relatable situation comedy as well as some very serious moments.  I would add that the play was also didactic.  A weekday lunch performance will in general draw a more mature crowd and so it was with this performance.  I estimate that about half to two third of the audience were past retirement age.  Many probably felt, like grandad, that it was so much easier to pay a bill when you just walked into the gas or water board’s office.  We all have spent half a day ringing around and going through various automated services getting nowhere.  However, remembering my mother trying to pay her bills in the half hour between picking me up from Kindergarten and the post office closing, I feel she probably would have loved a phone service. This play definitely reminds us not to see the past through rose tinted glasses.  It also shows the audience that there were events in their lives that are relatable to the issues the younger generation faces today.  Bullied is a timely reminder for Boomers to reach out to GenZ and help them navigate growing up in the same way their parents helped their children.  Boomers have a reputation to be rather a bit too self-centred and the sentiment ‘being a grandparent is all the fun without any of the responsibility’ sums this up.  Grandparents play an important part in a child’s development.  So much so that ‘rent a granny’ schemes pop up all over the place.  In Bullied we are not only shown what issues teenagers face today, but also that someone in their mid-sixties or seventies can play an important role in teenagers’ life in dealing with their issues.  When it comes to the human experience the saying ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’ becomes a truism.

Published July 30, 2024 by Tamara Stein