Cyprus Avenue: Abbey Theatre/Royal Court

Oh dear, is it icky? I booked for this because, well, Stephen Rea - but I'm not really up for any yuckiness. (Psychological violence is perfectly fine - it's gore that's a no-no.)

Ha - I haven't seen The Commitments but I certainly wasn't expecting Once! :-) If it's funny dark, like Hangmen, I should be fine. *crosses fingers, makes mental note to take along the smelling salts*

We both know Stephen Rea would make any gore still super sexy though (Somehow, I haven't thought this through).

I am looking forward to this, apologies to those of you going on 16 April matinee as I may push you down the stairs to get the best seat.

'Puts Cleansed in the shade'? This is not sounding good to this gore-phobe!! Marwood/Snciole - we need to know just how revolting this gets...

Torn between going (because I love Stephen Rea) and chickening out (because I hate gore). If it's all happening at the end, I might just have to close my eyes and pray I stay conscious through any sound effects... ;-)

There's one short sound effect that will make anyone cringe, and although it goes all out with the major visual effect, it's in a clean fashion. I'm happy to spoil further if anyone wants it, but I will need someone to remind me how to do the spoiler tag.

It's extremely funny, very well-performed by Stephen Rea, slightly underwritten as far as the other characters go (if I say it felt like a one-man show for Rea but with extra people, I hope that makes sense), but does go dark toward the end. Less Sarah Kane dark, more Edward Bond dark I'd say. I'd hesitate to recommend it to people unless I knew them well, but I can't fault the production. Besides everything else, it's a fascinating look at national identity, and I'm really not overstating things when I say it's very funny.

Okay, I've gone into spoilery detail behind the tag with regards to things people on this forum are known to be sensitive about. I've tried to maintain at least a little surprise, but it is pretty spoilery with regards to action. So don't click if you want to be surprised, but do click if you really must know what happens so you can decide if you're up for it or too sensitive this time (and believe me, no one who's seen it will judge you if you decide you're too sensitive).

I should make clear that "puts Cleansed in the shade" were my words is not a direct quote - he in fact said of the two plays, Cyprus Avenue "left me far more shaken and stirred" which to me sounds like he's saying it is psychologically tougher on the audience despite being less explicitly horrific but I guess it's all so subjective and impossible to judge without seeing both anyway. The article is here www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/apr/11/cyprus-avenue-david-ireland-belfast-play-royal-court-theatre-upstairs

Anyhow these positive comments plus the reviews have persuaded me to fit this one in. Looking forward to it.

Thanks Baemax (and harry!). Pleased to hear it sounds like I can probably manage this one.

My first trip to the theatre upstairs... Can anyone offer any advice as to when people seem to start queuing for this before the show, and what the layout of the auditorium is? (She asks with great trepidation, being a solo theatregoer and wondering how the heck she's going to fit in a loo visit without missing out on a half-decent seat.)

They say the door opens at 7:30, though this is flexible depending on FOH needs. I queued at 7:15 and there were only a handful of people ahead, although people who needed the lift for access did mean this number doubled by the time the doors actually opened. There always seems to be one or two really determined queue-jumpers or otherwise rude people in my experience, so if any of what I've said is likely to make you tense, don't join the queue if doing so puts you near enough to the front to see the goings on. It is a small auditorium, all the seats are fine, there's no need to panic or rush unless you're VERY particular about where you sit. (And as a solo theatre-goer, you may find the first batch of people in leave silly gaps like grown adults can't possibly sit directly next to strangers, so you could roll up thirty seconds to curtain and get a great seat just by being on your own.)

This play is traverse staging - the block on the side where you come in has an aisle (and any reserved seats will be in the front row here), the block on the far side has no aisle, both sides are equally fine for this production.

Saw this Saturday matinee, and loved it. An insightful play, with a tour de force performance by Stephen Rea.

Focusing on a traumatised and disturbed Ulster Loyalist, Eric (Stephen Rea), the play utilises a flashback structure wherein Eric tells a doctor (Wunmi Mosaku) about his recent past, at which point we flash back to see that past.

The structure allows us to compare what we are seeing, with Eric's account, which allows for a great deal of comedy when discrepancies occur. Unfortunately, the delineation between reality and Eric's account becomes blurred when he meets a Unionist Extremist, Slim (Chris Corrigan), whose behaviour is so bonkers that the status of what we are seeing becomes confused. Is it reality? Or is it a depiction of Eric's unreliable narration?

This is a shame, because there is a clear-eyed narrative coherency in the rest of the play which matches the clear-eyed brilliance of writer, David Ireland's deconstruction of extremism, tribalism and the building blocks of identity itself.

For me, the strongest passage involves Eric's description of his visit to an "Irish" Pub, how he feels like a British spy assuming an identity to enjoy the illicit pleasures of an Irish enemy. Ireland makes such a joke of the idea of even the possibility of a fixed identity during this sequence that I was convulsed with laughter. That this sequence is never even depicted visually is a remarkable testament to Rea's storytelling skills, as I can picture every last bit of the story in my head.

The rest of the play isn't so funny. But it had an effect on me. Hearing the buzzword "sovereignty," in relation to the upcoming referendum, the sheer pompousness of the word seemed to echo Eric's own favourite buzzwords in this play, and hearing Boris Johnson refer to Obama's "part Kenyan" heritage also seemed to echo Eric's racism. I began to wonder if Boris Johnson might be mentally ill.

An important play, topical and incisive, with one of the best performances of the year, this play deserves a transfer so more people can see it!

4 and a half stars