The Boys of Summer
The Irish Times

Review by Gerry Colgan (14th August 1985)

The Playwrights and Actors Company are breaking new bread in lunchtime theatre by staging it in the dress circle bar of the Gaiety Theatre, where they are producing four short plays between now and early September.

The first, by Neil Donnelly, goes straight for the public interest and pocket by choosing the evergreen theme of unalloyed sex. Two young female teachers, one a liberated hussy and the other a prematurely fuddy-duddy, hitch-hike to the west. There they meet a local Don Juan and his improbable buddy, a married man with a large family, both of whom sate their appetites on the usually compliant summer visitors.

Sex is had by all, one pair by mutual consent and the other through rape. Then everyone, even the rape victim who unconvincingly chooses to suffer in silence, goes back to the daily, disgruntled routine.

Not a lot there, really, except some acute observation o-tempora-o-mores. The hussy and husband are the meatier parts, very well taken by Fidelma O’Dowda and Robert Carlisle. Marion O’Dwyer and Colm Hefferon complement them convincingly, and Kevin McHugh directs proceedings with control. Support your local dress circle bar.