TERMINUS

Subterranean-sounding stomps in the pitch black, and then an ear-piercing shatter … So begins Terminus by Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe, an enthralling three-part set of interlocking soliloquies delivered from the edge of death’s ravine. Person A (a striking and exceptional Olwen Fouere) attempts to wrest a young woman and her unborn child from the clutches of a female bully; Person B (Catherine Walker) falls from a crane and gets saved by a demon of worms; Person C (Declan Conlon) sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a golden voice (that needless to say, goes unheeded). This Abbey Theatre production, shipped over as-is from the Emerald Isle, is plain and yet fantastical, a simple multi-thread tale studded with ample expletives and ew-moments to shock and titillate the audience, told in lilting rhyming quartets bordering on banal. It is gauche, grotesque, and also glorious. Playing into the trenchant Irish tradition of storytelling, the narrative is placed front-and-centre. Those looking for on-stage antics, look elsewhere. Instead as audience members you are clasped close to each spot-lit teller as they tell their tale, sometimes uncomfortably close. The overarching themes of life, death, redemption are undercut by the rhythm of the rhymes, the clichéd familiarity of the fable, the intermittent potty-humour. It’s a delicate mix – and here, the good triumphs.

Until Jul 9, Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House, $35-90, 9250 1777, sydneytheatre.com.au