Gatman at The Everyman- Review
Cork local Tadgh Hickey's new show premiere's tonight featuring talking dogs, statues and gat galore.
As was seen clearly during the Covid-19 lockdowns, when off-licences remained open to the public, alcohol is deemed an essential service in this country. Indeed, it would be much easier to imagine the end of the world, than the end of heavy drinking in Ireland.
Alcohol, not cocaine, not heroin, not marijuana, not even the concoction of pills doctors readily prescribe to patients, alcohol is by far and away the most destructive drug in society today and yet there is absolutely no stigma or taboo associated with its consumption.
It is completely accepted, freely available and the onus is entirely on every individual to regulate their own intake. Therefore, if you do indulge in a glass from time to time, you fall colloquially into one of two categories; someone who can either handle their drink or someone who can’t.
Gatman, written and performed by Tadgh Hickey, tells the story of a character named Murph, who very much falls into the latter brigade, as he is unable to deal with the arrival of the intoxicating substance into his life. From his maiden gulp down an alleyway by The Lough on the night of his Junior Cert results, he quickly falls in love with the booze and sees his life forever altered by that fateful first encounter.
When we first meet Murph, dressed in an oversized green shirt and navy trousers, it is at an AA meeting where he hesitantly reveals his addiction problems and the issues it has caused in his life. Mic'd up like a speaker at a TEDx talk, Hickey talks to the audience in a very comfortable and relaxed manner, so much so that some in the auditorium wanted to offer ripostes to his opening introduction.
But this isn’t an interactive show and as Murph reveals his tale of addiction, he is a bag of nerves. His left leg is shaking nervously, he’s itching his head as he talks; clearly he is ashamed of the carnage in his life and perhaps even more ashamed of having had a drug so many other people can dabble in, get the better of him.
The play though, is not just a solemn look at the world of addiction, it is also quite lighthearted and full of witty observations, especially about childhood, as we are transported back to his youth and get an insight into his struggles with his tubby frame and an infatuation with a school teacher named Miss Clarke.
Miss Clarke is kind and sweet to Murph and he idolizes her as his dream woman. This is in contrast to his own mother who has a vice-like grip over his psyche and sense of self-worth. All of this falls by the wayside however, when he takes his first drink and is transformed into his superhero alter ego named Gatman, free of any inhibitions and suddenly feeling rather good about himself.
When this change takes place, Hickey is standing on a platform behind a projection screen, which shows images of drink rising in a glass, CGI footage of Cork’s mythical Sir Henry’s nightclub and a comic book strip of Gatman and his sidekick, a talking dog called Robert.
While initially amusing, the Gatman cartoon strip fantasy world and his mission to defeat the statue of Father Matthew who has come to life, is nowhere near as interesting as the story that is unfolding in Murph’s real world. It is here we see his real dilemma as he has to try to straighten himself up for a meeting with his son Fionn, which we are led to believe is almost last chance saloon territory if he wants to continue to be part of his life.
Hickey gives an accomplished performance and in inhabiting 17 different characters, he does well to make the story easy to follow, but there was an inescapable feeling of a missed opportunity so often felt at one person shows.
Beyond the many Corkcentric jokes and 80s/90/s nostalgia, Hickey clearly has some insight into what it is like to be addicted to alcohol, but the pity is, this was not plumbed to any great depths in the play.
The ongoing struggle with his mother, which felt like the most crucial aspect of the story, could’ve been a play in itself and how much more powerful it would’ve been to have another actor on stage with him and for the two of them to go at it face to face.
While this is a bigger production than his last play In One Eye, Out The Other, in terms of eye-catching multimedia effects and the likes, it unfortunately fell some way short of stirring any real emotions or creating a sense of empathy for the main character.
Taking the audience applause after the show, Hickey raised a Palestinian flag in a show of support for the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The premiere of Gatman is at The Everyman tonight at 8pm. Tickets and more info at the Everyman.