Push Up is a tedious play. If ever there was a play that skimmed and skidded across the surface of its subject, dipping the odd toe in, without ever even looking like risking immersion, it's Push Up.
W;t grapples with regret, relationships, the here-and-now, the hereafter, life, death, the unattainable, inescapable and ineffable; with choices & compulsions; the professional and personal.
Many playwrights have tried to write this play, tried to say what it is saying, tried to ask of us what it is asking - but it is Jonathan Gavin has succeeded with Bang.
A gifted embroider of words, Friel combines soft lyricism and hard meaning in his play, a tragical comical historical pastoral on a spree and spoiling for a spirited spar.
In the care of Pinchgut Opera’s director, Erin Helyard, this music, formulaic as it indeed is in some respects, sprang off the page into an experience rich in emotions.
Iolanthe and Janet Anderson work in cosmic, comedic accord, characterisation charismatic, timing impeccable, delivery precise, together a tour de force that ascends the cliché.
Blind faith and rational belief are always sparring partners in dramatic conflict and so it is here with the power play tinged with superstition and salaciousness.