Wake is an Irish black comedy in the vein of the McDonagh brothers but with crudeness and farce in the place of violence and poignancy – ‘Men Behaving Badly in Bruges’ perhaps. And, though the script doesn’t have the level of polish of those great comedies, the laughs are there in force.
Paul and Eddie are two old school-friends who meet for the first time in a while at a wake for Paul’s uncle. What starts as a respectful ribbing of the deceased escalates and becomes increasingly hilarious as we learn more about the intertwined lives of the two lads, both in ways they know about and ways they don’t.
The programme mentioned that Barry Wilson was a last-minute addition to the two-man cast, replacing the original actor as Eddie. This may explain some of the technical issues that were present throughout the play –pauses over cues – but these hiccups are fairly forgivable, especially for a first night showing. In fact, it was impressive that it had comparatively little effect on a play that is tightly written and therefore heavily reliant on the comic timing of the cast to maintain the level of energy.
The show starts strongly with some physical comedy from Mark Kavanagh, who wrote the show and stars as Paul, and then several sharp lines in the initial small talk that allows us to learn about the two men. Once we know their personalities, the story begins to layer a bit more but there are some lulls in the stream of laughs and occasionally some characterisation that seems to come from the lines rather than informing them. Nonetheless, the show is understated and hilarious, and does a good job at making two drunk men in a darkened room an engaging and entertaining concept.
