The 1990s in theatre meant more than
“in-yer-face” plays. At the same time as British drama was growing
graphic and biological, a crop of Irish playwrights were breathing new
life into the monologue form. Conor McPherson and Enda Walsh are the
best-known, but in 1999 Mark O’Rowe’s
Howie
The Rookie almost bridged the gap between the monologue and
in-yer-face currents. In a pair of linked monologues it tells of a
couple of young Dublin toughs, The Howie Lee and The Rookie Lee (note
the definite articles), as they drink, shag and fight their way across
their little territory over a few nights, beginning by pummelling each
other and ending in self-sacrifice and a metaphysical bond.
In the original production the Howie and the Rookie were played by
different actors; in this, its first major London exposure since then,
directed by the author, both are portrayed by Tom Vaughan-Lawlor. In
practice this feels at least as natural a way of staging the piece. One
monologue follows another (each lasting around 40 minutes), so there is
no inherent call for onstage interaction; the only issue is
distinguishing between the two characters. Vaughan-Lawlor uses one
obvious tactic, a change of T-shirt, but also changes his voice and
physicality. The Howie is big on physical gesture, adopting a
half-crouch and turning and weaving in an almost non-stop anthropoid
swivel; the Rookie carries himself more upright and is still physically
expressive but less idiosyncratic about it. Vocally, this character is
lower in pitch and flatter in his basic cadence than the Howie, yet he
also boasts a greater range of musicality; the Howie seems to deliver
almost every sentence in the same tune.
First time around, I discerned echoes of Damon Runyon and Irvine Welsh
in O’Rowe’s tale. On this occasion, I’ve no idea where Runyon could
have been, but the crucial episode – the Howie’s rescue of the Rookie
in the chaotic Dublin night – reminds me of the broadly similar event
from which James Joyce went on to spin out all of
Ulysses. That’s a mighty comparison
to invoke, but not an absurd one. O’Rowe’s production goes on to BAM in
New York in mid-December.
Written for the Financial
Times.