FringeReview UK 2026
What the Animals Say
Choke on Laughter in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.
Genre: Dark Comedy, Drama, Fringe Theatre, Mainstream Theatre, Short Plays, Theatre
Venue: Finborough Theatre
Festival: FringeReview UK
Low Down
David Ireland’s 2009 debut play What the Animals Say gets its first English staging at the Finborough Theatre, directed by Harry Burton till October 24. Ireland has appeared at the Finborough twice before and they’re perfectly matched for much of his output.
Hilarious. See it and exit wiser with a whole new vocabulary for racism and bubbling sectarianism. A blast.
Review
“I didn’t ask if you could smoke. I asked if you had a light.” On the ferry to Stranraer, two men encounter each other, then recognize each other from school. And every time the star footballer wrong-foots the struggling actor with a verbal tackle. And worse. David Ireland’s 2009 debut play What the Animals Say gets its first English staging at the Finborough Theatre, directed by Harry Burton till October 24. Ireland has appeared at the Finborough twice before and they’re perfectly matched for much of his output.
Script-wielding Matthew Blaney (Jimmy Culvar) wants to be left in peace to rehearse his audition for a Mel Gibson film. Robbie Martin (Eddie) finds this more and more absurd. From bonding when they recognize each other, the second act in this hour-long play is altogether darker. A bit like True West, but in a one-sided way, the footballer has taken on the actor. And when you think of his naturally caustic ambushes Eddie seems to score over polite Jimmy every time. Jimmy’s reading tome on the Troubles Wherever Green is Worn. Eddie’s dismissive. “But if a book’s any good they’ll turn it into a movie. So why bother reading” Reminding Jimmy he saw him in Calamity Jane at school, Eddie later responds to Jimmy’s irritated “Have you ever been to the theatre?” “Oh aye.” What did you see?” ‘Calamity Jane.”
From the start of his career Ireland shows the actor-writer’s usual gift for dialogue. But this is a step up: it’s hilarious, foul-mouthed and full of jokes waiting to detonate. Eddie’s racism, xenophobia, incipient homophobia, sexism and much more rubs up Jimmy’s anxiously cultivated liberalism. Both Protestant Belfast-born men live in Scotland, but only one’s the captain of Catholic team Celtic, and the other says he supports them. There’s huge stand-offs about who’s Fenian, who’s a “taig”; and if Jimmy admits he hates London Eddie translates that as them both hating the English.
The set by resident designer Alex Marker is firt a bleak waiting room with bare seats and dim windows with a poster forlornly promising sunlight. It’s cleverly reversed into a dressing room in the second half. Eleanor Landgrebe’s costumes do heavy lifting: Eddie’s richly-encrusted bling-wear and Jimmy’s down-at-audition dingy brown tell you all you need to know about fortunes and even status. It’s lit by Jodi Rabinowitz with a kind of dim spectral glare for the ferry, and later a dressing room. Joe Dines’ sound pulses out the Pogues. Alison de Burgh’s fight direction when it comes is sudden and shocking (unless you know Ireland; then you sort of expect it like a comedic critique of McDonagh’s violence). Praise to the effects department too.
Martin’s foul if not fouling footballer gets the laughs with his razor comic timing whilst Blaney scores in subtext and back-to-the-wall renditions of Hamlet, with just that ounce of desperation of a failing actor. The end tough twists to the last line. The actors’ chemistry is palpable and this hugely enjoyable dark comedy is over in a blink. No spoilers. See it and exit wiser with a whole new vocabulary for racism and bubbling sectarianism. A blast. As Ireland tells us in his introduction, Cyprus Avenue where babies turn into Gerry Adams was waiting in the wings for an actor who gave up, and became David Ireland instead.
Stage Managers Raffy Elliston and Lesley Clay, Production Manager Mark Gillespie, Photography Gavin Watson. Press Representation Matthew Parker, Technician Josh Bradley Design Assistant Sophie Cullen.
Choke on Laughter in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre.
General Manager Tara Marricdale, Assistant General Managers Lois Rodel, Silvia Verzaro and Isaac Woon, Resident Designer Alex Marker, Resident Assistant Designer Juliette Demoulin, Assistant Resident Director Jillian Feuerstein, Resident Assistant Producer Jaemin Yu, Cover Art Designer, Jillian Feuerstein.
