Christ Deliver Us! Opening Date 16 February 2010 Closing Date 13 March 2010 Time Monday - Saturday 7.30pm, Saturday matinee 2.00pm Director Wayne Jordan Writer Thomas Kilroy Cast Aaron Monaghan, Aoife Duffin, Laurence Kinlan, Michael McElhatton, Cathy Balton, Tom Hickey, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Ruth McGill Ticket Price €13 - €38 Venue Abbey Theatre Lower Abbey Street Dublin 1 Phone (01) 87 87 222

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Heavenly hypocrisy.

As promotional posters for theatrical productions go, this one was seemingly innocuous. A set of wan looking legs-the kind that were the preserve of the cailíní of yore before Fake Bake streaked its tangerine way into freckly Irish hearts and when traipsing to school through rush-filled fields was the norm. A sweet daisy patterned frock hemmed above ruddy red knees completes the picture. Simple...perhaps. Devoid of meaning...most definitely not. In small print, a warning to potential viewers "Please note the play contains scenes of a disturbing nature." It is this juxtaposition-between the vulnerability and insouciance of youth with the underlying tension that breeds in a sexually oppressive society-that underpins Thomas Kilroy's play about three young schoolgoers, Mossy, Michael and Winnie and their attempts to understand the world and what their place in it might be.

Inspired by Wedekind's Spring Awakening (1891), Kilroy has cleverly adapted the themes of suicide, sex and abortion, placing them within the rural environs of a Church-ruled Ireland in the 1950s. To fully understand Christ Deliver Us!, it is necessary to first comprehend the relationship between Church and State in Costello's Ireland. A theocracy in all but name, authority was wielded through the ham-fisted clutches of the curate's cassock. Nothing could be done without the support of the Church and obeisance was not just expected, but demanded.

The play opens with a rather comical scene of three boys trying their best to get a few puffs in before they have to return to class. Their devil-may-care attitude is quickly checked however when they are caught red-handed by a young priest and chastised with a leather strap for their disobedience. The idea nowadays of someone in authority using physical punishment to atone for minor infractions would send the majority into a fiery frenzy but corporal punishment was just a reality of the times, of our parents times even. To question it would be to go against the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Michael (Aaron Monaghan) is the only one to resent the authority of the priests and he consistently shocks his helpless best friend Mossy (Laurence Kinlan) with his frequent rejection of God. Together they struggle to fully understand what is right and what is wrong in the laws of the universe. With hormones teeming beneath the surface, life is made difficult in a world where sex is undeniably a dirty word but where temptation exists around every corner. The effervescent Winnie (Aoife Duffin) is the apple of her mother's eye, a vulnerable young rascal who spends her time wishing she were somewhere else. Evenings spent dreaming with Michael on the banks of the Gowlawn Gash river lead to unexpectedly brutal events-and director Wayne Jordan certainly doesn't shy away from depicting these scenes in the most frank and heartwrenching way.

Despite the heavy subject-matter, Christ Deliver Us! isn't short on laughs and the audience will thoroughly enjoy some of the more lighthearted scenes. While it's sometimes hard to believe that the actors are actually the ages that they portray, the performances of the three leads is superlative. Kinlan in particular manages to convey the angst-ridden Mossy to perfection, while Duffin steals the show as the innocent and sweet young Winnie. However, one of my main criticisms with this play was that there simply wasn't much character development. It seemed like each character's demise happened quite suddenly so that we're left wondering 'How did we get to this point when in the scene beforehand they seemed fine' etc. Obviously there are numerous constraints with putting on a production like this-everything from set design to time itself-but I felt that there could have been a more gradual decline for each character so that there was no doubt which way they were headed. Also the scene where Michael's parents are arguing over his future seemed a little too dramatic and the acting a bit too forced-wild gesticulating and lots of sighs made the scene a little farcical in my eyes when in fact it was quite a seminal moment for Michael. Nevertheless despite its faults, Christ Deliver Us! is a very good and poignant piece of Irish theatre and well worth an evening at the Abbey.

- Louisa McElwee