'The Promise of Sex: Two Plays by Howard Barker'

'The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo' and 'Women Beware Women' at the Project, Dublin.

"The weight of my erudition lies heavily on my shoulders." This was not a line from either play, but it may as well have been. In both, proper characters are never allowed to exist, to escape the chokehold of the didactic authorial voice. It is clear from the programme notes that this meaningful lecture from author to audience member is wholly intended.

Barker sets these plays out as part of a 'Theatre of Catastrophe' that has no truck with those who "make poles of narrative and character". Further on he positions the actor at the centre of this theatre, which seems rather hypocritical, if s/he is not given a rounded character to work with.

Even though the use of humour is thoroughly eschewed in the notes, sometimes an attempt is made to leaven the mood with frivolity as one (character) in the second play shouts in despair, "There is no realism here", with the reply from another "I hate realism". Yes, I think we got that one. Elsewhere, it is uttered "This is like a picture-book brought to life, I could watch for hours". I, on the other hand, could not.

'The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo' was directed by the playwright and has an elderly man, Isonzo (David Ian Rabey) and a young woman, Tenna (Antoinette Walsh) both shielded by sunglasses, professing to be blind. It is their wedding day. She has picked her husband on the basis that he is too old (and indeed blind) to be enticed by other women and that she will possess him completely. She sits elegantly in her nuptial finery waiting to be ravished, while her aged betrothed staggers around engaging her in an elaborate and lengthy foreplay. This he has attempted with his eleven previous conquests and consummated none of them.

The omens for sexual fulfilment do not bode well. She's dressed like Winnie from 'Happy Days' and this Isonzo could be Krapp's long-lost brother, while the heavy white make-up and stark setting all contribute to the Beckett feel. Isonzo regales us with his thoughts on the pleasures of anticipation and his previous experiences, while seventeen-year-old Tenna taunts his inability to, well, get down to business. So far, so 'Foregame', but then, he persuades her to start removing her clothing in a striptease "at her own pace" and we have a beautiful naked blind girl rejoicing in her ripeness. Well that woke us up!

Alas, the novelty of nudity is fleeting and while the clever-clever proclamations are well-written, there was a glaring absence of engaging drama to back up the titillation. In the notes, Barker writes, that the actor "both suffers more and exposes more than the audience anticipates". The only exposing going on was that of the literal variety and the only suffering endured was by the clothed actors (and audience) in the tropical conditions of the auditorium.

Both actors carried the piece, despite its faults, with particular praise going to Walsh, who struck a nice balance between womanly self-confidence and girlish embarrassment. Also, her courage to cavort thus in such a small space and under glaring light is to be commended, even though she has absolutely nothing to hide.

'Women Beware Women' is a play originally written by Thomas Midleton, which Barker has edited in the first act and completely rewritten in the second. It is a strange strategy, as the style and tone jars hugely from one to the other, yet this must have been the intention. It is set in and around an Italian Duke's court in Florence in an unspecified time.

A young factor, Leantio (Ben Palmer) brings his beautiful sixteen-year-old bride, Bianca (Louise Kiely) to his mother's home, as he has to attend to some business for a few days. The Duke (Gerry O'Brien), a lascivious old hound, spies this pretty thing and seduces her with promises of wealth and power. Heartbroken, Leantio is consoled by the much older Livia (Iseult Golden).

Suffice to say, Bianca's avarice and vanity come back to haunt her and it all ends in tears, however none of all this is ever made to really matter, as throughout we are treated to the same didactic drone on sexual politics. Oh yes the Lord Cardinal cries, "this is politics". This was delivered solemnly, but I sincerely hope it was intended as a joke, as I'm daily gaining ever more respect for Brecht who'd at least have the sincerity to print his slogans on the wall.

Quite a few of the actors here are young, recent, or not so recent Gaiety school graduates and thus my mind was brought back to their graduation showcase in the same space a few months ago. 'Isabel' was a mock-Shakespeare effort that Gavin Kostick wrote with a similar sexual intrigue in a Royal court plot. Even though it was conceived as a light-hearted, knockabout tragi-comedy, unlike this sombre collection of pseudo-profundities, it succeeded where 'Women Beware Women' fails.

In 'Isabel', where pace and humour was needed to sustain audience attention, they were employed. The characters were, like here, stock, but they spoke with distinctive voices and their actions brought about any abstract conclusions one may come to that here are lazily proclaimed. Despite some impressive acting from the ever reliable O'Brien and particularly Aiden Condren as the agent of Bianca's downfall, it is with great disappointment that I cannot recommend the work of a 'living legend' of British theatre.

Nick McGinley

'The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo' is showing at 8.15pm and 'Women Beware Women' is showing at 8pm from 27 July to 11 August 2001 at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin.