The Matador

Bewley’s Cafe Theatre @ Powerscourt

***

The humble Irish family farm doesn’t usually conjure up the savage glamour of bullfighting, but it is reimagined as a blood-soaked corrida in this striking one-man show. That this seems at all plausible is down to Shane O’Reilly, who wrote the piece and gives a bravura performance. With a combination of expressive physicality, deft character acting and slightly incongruous singing, O’Reilly tells the story of Liam, a farmer’s son whose dreams of escape are shattered when his reticent father tries to sell a prize bull, with catastrophic consequences. Under Eoghan Carrick’s direction, O’Reilly brings more than enough magnetism, variety and energy to his tragicomic fable to make up for the daft premise of the plot. It is delivered with such conviction that even the most virulent anti-bullfighting campaigner might end up rooting for the eponymous protagonist.

Until September 14th