Impossible Things Before Breakfast: My Friend Duplicity

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Rating (out of 5)
4
Show info
Company
Traverse Theatre Company & Hibrow Productions
Production
Enda Walsh (writer), Vicky Featherstone (director)
Performers
Niall Buggy (Fergal), Olga Wehrly (Jean)
Running time
25mins

'My Friend Duplicity' is part of the 'Impossible Things Before Breakfast' staged readings. Written by one of Ireland's foremost playwright's Enda Walsh, the writing is superb, engaging the audience in a fantastical journey, the epitome of what a theatrical experience ought to be.

The play begins in silence with two Irish characters, Fergal and Jean, sitting at a table in a room in what we learn to be the city of London. Fergal then starts to wax lyrical about a garden he imagines they're sitting in whilst sits Jean quietly listening, looking at times almost disinterested.

Gradually a dialogue emerges and we begin to understand, for an indeterminate reason, that the two characters meet in this room every day. Are they there because they feel isolated in London and want to keep each company, or is it a professional relationship? We don't know. But we what we do find out is that Fergal survives living in the moment, conjuring up fantasy.

Directed by Vicky Featherstone, the pace was excellent, as was the acting. Olga Wehrly, gave a marvellous performance as bland Jean who seems to be an almost unwilling participant in this daily meeting routine. And Niall Buggy's portrayal of Fergal as the manic Irishman was mesmerising.