Private Peaceful - theatre review

“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.

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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