“Tonight, more than any
other night, I want to feel alive.”
These are
the thoughts that are going through our character Tommo’s mind as he cradles
his watch to his ear, listening to the comforting sound of the ticking.
The watch is
a gift from his beloved brother and Tommo keeps checking to see if the
watch is still working.
It is.
Time is
still ticking along.
And time is
clearly very much the essence for Tommo and a recurring theme in this
play.
In fact,
Tommo begins to reflect on times gone by – especially memories of childhood fun
with his brother Charlie and local friend Molly.
We begin to
read between the lines and we realise that Tommo had a crush on Molly. We smile
when Tommo recalls the first time they all went skinny dipping and the first
time he glimpsed a female’s naked body. And then we realise, sooner than Tommo
did, that Molly and Charlie were in love with each other all along and poor ol’
Tommo was the go-between – acting as courier of love letters between the two.
Tommo is
played by Odhran McNulty and for the entire 80 minutes of the play, Odhran has
no props and no fellow actors – yet he plays 22 characters, a wide range of
accents and numerous scenes. His skill and talent is hugely admirable. His many
accents brought a smile to my face and were a joy to watch. With no props
(except for a few small stools), his energy was unstoppable as he used every
inch of the stage and every permutation of movement to transform himself
through a myriad of scenes. It really was an impressive feat.
I began to
notice that the same familiar trademark of Pintsized Productions was apparent
with this piece too – Nuala Donnelly’s precise direction – her ability to use
one actor, no props and yet vividly depict a number of scenes and characters is remarkable. And a vivid depiction it most certainly was. We quickly
forgot that there was only one man on a stage. We were immersed in the world of
Tommo. Does Molly realise that he’s actually in love with her? Will Molly and
Tommo be reunited?
We watch as
Charlie and Tommo get pushed into signing up for the war. We watch the
triumphant leader putting pressure on young men to act for their country. We
watch the old lady taunting Tommo and asking him if he’s too much of a ‘coward’.
We watch these scenes unfold and forget that there’s only one man playing all
of them – McNulty's ability to portray many characters allows us to immerse ourselves in the story.
We learn
that Charlie and Molly name their baby after Tommo and it warms our hearts. We
hear how Molly longs for baby Tommo to meet his dad and uncle after the war and
we hope they will all be reunited. And we are catapulted into Tommo’s world
when he’s lying in the middle of the trenches, dodging death. We are
transported into that scene, seeing him crouching down next to his injured
brother, refusing to leave him. We’re behind him 100% when he disobeys orders –
orders that tell him to leave his brother behind. And we’re there with him
facing the consequences and feeling the injustice of his young years.
“Tonight, I want very much to believe
that there’s a heaven, that death is not a full stop, and that we will all see
one another again.”
And then the
lights go up, and we have tears in our eyes, and we’re transported back to the
present. This is just one man on a stage. But for 80 minutes, we were in Tommo’s
world, immersed in his life, immersed in the people that surrounded him,
immersed in his realisation that time is so very precious and tonight, more
than any other night, we should remember to feel alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Private Peaceful was performed by Odhran McNulty and directed by Nuala Donnelly.
Written by Michael Morpurgo and adapted by Simon Reade.
Pintsized Productions website: Pintsized
