Donal O'Kelly's Brace - Skeffy[author-post-rating] (2/5)

I now properly “get” that word-of-mouth is the most important tool for selling a show in Edinburgh. Though Donal O’Kelly’s Brace – Skeffy was awarded a Fringe First last week and has been given four stars by the likes of The Scotsman, the audience when I saw the show was a little over a dozen. Why? Because, for all its critical accolades, it’s not that good. If it was, people would be telling their friends and it’d be filling up. As it stands, it’s a quasi-political piece about the Easter Rising of 1916 which has little in the way of argument and a self-conscious, awkward performance from O’Kelly.

It starts promisingly enough, with a beggar telling us how he was given a warning by a police officer for sitting by an ATM, commenting on the irony inherent in this exchange considering it’s because of the banks that “Ireland’s gone to fuck”. We then rewind almost 100 years to hear the story of the trials of Frank Sheehy Skeffington during the battles over home rule in Dublin, rattling through his various stations throughout the conflict.

It’s a well-written piece of text, evoking some interesting images and conveying the frustrations of those involved in the protests. Sometimes, even, it can be a harrowing experience hearing of these atrocities committed against Skeffington and others. But it absolutely fails because of O’Kelly’s performance, which demonstrates little theatrical understanding whatsoever.

Quite aside from nearly forgetting lines and looking from left to right constantly so that his eye-line is just beyond that of most of the audience, this is a performance which lacks any direction. Lines are delivered in a slow, monotonous voice which makes it completely impossible to care, and for some reason very basic and badly executed mimes have been peppered throughout. At one point, O’Kelly runs in slow-motion on the spot. And, like our narrator at this moment, the play itself is going nowhere fast.

Donal O’Kelly’s Brace is at Hill Street Theatre until 25 August. For more information and tickets visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.