Cyprus Avenue - Royal Court
- What We've Watched
- May 3, 2020
- 2 min read
Hello all! Keeping safe I hope.
Guess what? We’re still watching theatre online! This time it’s Cyprus Avenue at the Royal Court Theatre. I watched this one alone, and it’s only a short one for you, but I hope you enjoy it! Cyprus Avenue is available on the Royal Court Theatre website until 31st May – I’ve tried to be vague about the plot because you should watch this!
Cyprus Avenue is a 2016 play by David Ireland, it was awarded the 2017 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama in the same year. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre before transferring to New York, Dublin and Belfast, and then returning in 2019 for another run at the Royal Court. It tells the tale of Eric, he’s a Belfast loyalist who is experiencing a psychotic episode which causes him to make terrible decisions. We haven’t watched a lot of ‘modern plays’ recently and therefore it was very strange for me to hear such modern writing, it didn’t take long for me adjust.
We start the play in the doctor’s office, Eric (played by Stephen Rea) meets his doctor Bridget (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo) and tells her, and us, the story of how he got to be there. I couldn’t help but love Eric, no matter how flawed he was and how abhorrent his actions were, Rea’s delivery and David Irelands wonderful script make you feel for him, I can’t forgive his actions, but I also find it difficult to condemn him for them. Rea’s final scene with his daughter, Julie (played by Amy Molloy), is particularly sad, not just because of his actions at the end, but because you feel for her – she so desperately wants to help him. All the actors held and commanded the space and were wonderful. The script is fantastic, Eric’s monologue about Ireland, being or not being Irish and the modern-day blur that he cannot comprehend was incredible. The dialogue was quick and energetic, especially the scene with Slim (Chris Corrigan), who is the worst person he could possibly meet (or imagine) – it was electric. This is a very good play.
The set is very basic, some chairs and a table, it didn’t need anything more. Scenes flowed and jumped into each other, family walking in as the doctor leaves etc. The addition of the location shooting from Belfast confused the action a bit, but for me this mimicked his jumping and confused mind, so I didn’t find it too upsetting. The play is a black comedy, and I love a black comedy, but Cyprus Avenue takes you by surprise and really plays with you. You’re laughing along with Eric until you really can’t anymore.
This play and this production is wonderful and well worth a watch if you can catch it. I’ve linked it below to make watching it even easier for you.
Well there you go, a short little review of a fantastic show.
See you soon,
Ellie (and Anita – she’s here in spirit) x
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