Rough Magic’s interpretation of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The Critic sets up a dialectical debate concerning the moral obligation of theatre versus its entertainment value. The first act of the performance suggests, albeit in a satirical manner, that theatre and politics have an antonymic relationship and are diametrically opposed. As the play opens, Mrs Dangle ridicules her husband for scouring the pages of the daily newspapers for theatrical gossip, branding him a “theatrical quidnunc” and his passion for the theatre “ridiculous.” Mr Dangle, on the other hand, is an unapologetic theatrical enthusiastic who believes that “the stage is the mirror of nature, and the actors the abstract and brief chronicles of the time.”

This production gives dramatic expression to Dangle’s convictions, offering us numerous glimpses into Ireland’s dramatic and political history across the centuries. Lynne Parker ingeniously moves the action from London to 18th Century Dublin, Sheridan’s hometown. The drawing room comedic banter of the first act is performed in-the-round on the ground floor of The Culture Box. As narrator/commentator, Peter Daly breaks the fourth wall convention of performance by providing historical information to the audience about the era, thus establishing Temple Bar as Dublin’s theatrical epicentre. Remaining loyal to Sheridan’s parodist intentions, the performances are fittingly hammy and very entertaining, particularly from Rory Nolan as the pretentious Sir Fretful Plagiary, Darragh Kelly as Dangle and a decidedly unctuous Karl Shiels as Puff, the writer of the abysmal version of The Spanish Armada. Cameos from Countess Markievicz, members of the Famine Central Relief Committee, and petitioners campaigning for the release of the Birmingham Six, which the audience encounter en route to The Ark for the second half, suggest a sense of transgenerational interaction, a communication with Dublin’s theatrical past.
 
The audience’s physical relocation mirrors a diegetic temporal shift as the action relocates to the 21st century and we are met with actual drama students in The Ark. Daly doubles as Stage Manager and coaches the students on the theatrical theories of Brecht, Schiller and Brook, before Puff’s entrance with Sneer and Dangle in tow. The result is a rich pastiche of multiple layers of representation as 18th Century theatrical types mingle with the real-life students (who do a very good job of playing very bad actors), whilst the hilarious reactions of the self-designated “critics” are videoed and projected onto the back wall of the stage. Puff’s play-within-a-play is an absurd parody of every theatrical maxim imaginable, with echoes of Hamlet, Frayn’s Noises Off and Monty Python; the laughs are cheap, self-reflexive, and very funny.

The employment of metatheatrical post-dramatic effects has the inverse effect of providing cohesion; whilst the audience’s physical relocation could result in a fragmented reception, the change of venue establishes a dialogue with previous theatrical conventions. This sense of trans-historical communication is given particular aesthetic expression when Mr Dangle incredulously reads aloud from a copy of Brook’s seminal 20th century text on experimental performance, “The Empty Space.” It is a dramatically insightful move that reminds us of how historical context can dictate artistic taste and the ultimate subjective nature of critical response

Rather than a mere farce, Rough Magic’s interpretation of The Critic is a celebratory salutation to the history of performance in Dublin. It demonstrates theatre’s ability to laugh at its own expense, while simultaneously providing a dense commentary on the act of criticism itself. By superimposing 18th century Dublin onto a contemporary setting, this production suggests that Dublin’s current dramatic landscape belongs to a rich booming artistic heritage. The finale provides a poignant counterpart to the humour of the second act; the back wall of the stage opens to reveal Temple Bar Meeting Square as it is now (with a full-scale concert in progress on the night in question). Against the backdrop of an inspirational soundtrack, the names of Ireland’s numerous thriving theatre companies are projected onto the top of the stage. The characters turn towards the back wall, and address Dublin, their real Public, a fitting allegory for the didactic and mobilising potentialities of theatre and its relevance to the wider community. For, to quote Mrs Dangle’s insightful comment from act one, “[t]he Public is their critic—without whose fair approbation they know no play can rest on the stage.”

Star rating: ★★★★