It's always difficult to review plays by Conor McPherson because it's a shame to give too much away.THE NEST is an adaptation by McPherson of a play by German playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz, none the less the piece shares many of the elements that characterise his own work.
I must confess my heart sank at the prospect of watching two actors for an interval-less one hour forty minutes but I have to say I was gripped throughout.
Laurence Kinlan and Caoilfhionn Dunne play one of those couples Teresa May was talking about on the steps of 10 Downing Street as she took power. They are just about getting by.
The stage represents their grotty flat, tidy except for a line of filth around the bottom of all their furniture. The flat sits on ugly concrete slabs with the banks of a lake beneath. Rusty iron struts protrude preventing the lake from ever feeling a pleasant place and a beautiful sound design by Gregory Clarke subtlety creates a sense of unease.
Early scenes depict the unremarkable couple budgeting for the arrival of their first baby. They are adorable in their devotion to each other, it's not a flashy romantic love, they are simply bound together with an obviously deep rooted affection.
Then the baby is born and there's a mishap and it becomes clear that what lines the base of the furniture isn't dirt, ominously it's a tide mark where filthy water has been.
The mishap which befalls the couple isn't the end of the world, although it's upsetting enough because we've been made to feel so fond of them. The mishap also is and isn't the husbands fault although much is made by the wife of his obsessive pursuit of money to make their life better. She fears the baby is missing out on having his father around.
It's all immaculately executed by all concerned under the careful and emotionally precise direction of Ian Rickson in a production which has transferred to London from the Lyric Theatre Belfast. Much is made in the programme of their mission to vividly tell "indigenous" Belfast stories. Except... well this isn't one. It's a German play with an English Director they've elected to have adapted by an Irish writer and to perform with Belfast accents.
This is a quality piece of work and the pain the two actors manage to convey is captivatingly raw and achingly real. There are also plenty of chilling moments which cast their spell.
The trouble is that when you're finally released into an Autumnal Waterloo the unease very quickly dissipates and I found myself wondering if the play earns the Ibsen-like symbolism the team are obviously hoping for, or whether it's simply the equivalent of an extended episode of TV hospital soap, CASUALTY.
Dance Company Modern Table, led by choreographer Kim Jae-Duk, closed this year’s London Festival of Korean Music with a sublime piece of art; a concoction of music, contemporary dance and song interwoven as smoothly as silk that led us on a journey deep into our soul, exploring the old and new and reassessing the past as reflected by the the future.