Gonzo produce cavans answer to taxi driver

Damian McCarney

Philip Doherty gave Cavan its very own version of Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle in his latest darkly comic play Shell-Shock. Trading the mean streets of New York for the mean-spirited mythical Cavan town of Ballyriffer, Doherty’s play sees impressive local actor Manus Halligan take on the lead role of Rory McCabe - a sympathetic, good natured, outsider who gradually unravels into a murderous psychopath.
Already flitting around the outer-reaches of Ballyriffer’s society, shy McCabe’s descent is further hastened by the collapse of a burgeoning romance in a cringingly embarrassing first date, before he’s sickened by, what he sees as the breakdown of morality and exploitation of the weak, most notably an angelic prostitute.
Where Taxi Driver offers a sustained air of menace to prepare the viewer for Bickle’s eventual snapping - the gormless McCabe had to bridge the chasm of comic innocent to ruthless killer. The trigger for his resort to violence was the apparent slighting of his great-grandfather - a WW1 veteran who offers McCabe a final crutch on which to support his broken ego.
This being a Gonzo production, the actors are challenged to the max, and so it is that Halligan’s versatile co-stars - Patrick O’Donnell and Rachel Gleeson must command the roles of narrators plus dozens of Ballyriffer’s community. The acting trio excelled throughout.

Toe-curling
O’Donnell was especially convincing in the despicable boy-racer thug Goose, while Gleeson shone as Gemma, McCabe’s tragically short-lived love interest.
Rory’s charm offensive in the first date is memorably toe-curling; his lewd reaction to even getting a date is perhaps toe-perming.
It’s Gonzo bang on form, the script steeped in laughs, sharp dialogue, and hilarious observations on the more ludicrous aspect of modern life. Of course life a century ago had its own ludicrousies - at one point there was even a slapstick explanation of WW1 through the prism of a Paddy Irishman joke with the Tsar, Kaiser and King playing the Paddys.
It was a piercing in its contempt for the preposterous egos that led to so many futile deaths. It was up there with Doherty’s previous assessment of the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger in The Circus of Perseverance. 

Crammed into 75 hugely enjoyable minutes, future productions of Shell-Shock are well worth catching, as Sunday’s packed Townhall audience will testify. Meanwhile, we have Gonzo’s premier of Pilgrim starring Rex Ryan to look forward to next month.