The Shadow of a Gunman

If you've seen any publicity for this season's main house production at the Citizens', you'd be forgiven for expecting The Shadow of a Gunman to be a thoroughly gloomy experience.

There's a black and white photograph of shadows on a cobbled street. It's about the resistance in Dublin on the eve of independence. Guns. History. Irish politics. It's a classic.

While it should probably be acknowledged that the snores of more than one audience member were distractingly audible on opening night, The Shadow of a Gunman is in fact a surprisingly brisk 90-minute play, with comedy, romance and drunken singing as well as fighting, impassioned speeches and political monologues.

O'Casey certainly wasted no time when it came to setting the scene: the residents of a tenement are efficiently introduced they traipse in and out of the home of half-hearted wheeler dealer Seamus Shields (Ciaran McIntyre).

The visitors are all after one thing: an introduction to Shields' new flatmate, a young poet named Donal Davoren (Michael Glenn Murphy) whom they suspect is actually a Republican gunman on the run. Davoren opts to play along, charming the wilful Minnie Powell (Terri Chandler) in the process.

Little does he realise that the loose tongues of misguided youngsters are about to lead the Black and Tans to his door, or that a split-second decision will have devastating consequences.

O'Casey, a former Republican who distanced himself from the movement in the 1910s, displays little sympathy for his idealistic characters, and despairs about the futility of violence on both sides.

The Shadow of a Gunman alternates between comedy and tragedy. In Phillip Breen's production the comic scenes have energy and flair while the more pensive moments fail to make as much impact as they should.

The impact of some sudden and very loud explosions is considerable (providing a rude awakening for those who'd nodded off). Noises offstage and action upstage effectively convey the terror and chaos of a raid, but the emotional drama in the foreground fails to resonate.

It's a tall order to take an audience from laughter to tears after introducing such a large cast of characters in so short a space of time. Despite capable performances from Murphy, Chandler, Cara Kelly and Aidan O'Hare, the audience remains at arms length, watching the drama unfold without ever quite being fully engaged.