Review: Tragedy And Comedy Come Together With Two Sides Of An Irish Tale In HOWIE THE ROOKIE

Wednesday 18th May 2016, Old Fitz Theatre, Woolloomooloo

A grittier underworld of suburban Dublin is exposed as two stories come together in the tragic, grotesque comedy, HOWIE THE ROOKIE. First presented by Red Line Productions in 2014, Mark O'Rowe's two part contemporary expression of Irish storytelling has been revived and redesigned for a return season.

Presented as two monologues, The Howie Lee (Andrew Henry) and The Rookie Lee's (Sean Hawkins) stories combine to paint a detailed picture of the lives of the two young, unrelated men in the grimy ganglands of Dublin. The audience first meets The Howie Lee, in tracksuit and hoodie and shaved head, who recounts a day where he'd found his friend Ali burning a mattress and was asked to help Ali and their friend Peaches seek vengeance on the person they believe caused the scabies outbreak, The Rookie Lee. The audience later meets The Rookie Lee, who has been sitting quietly during The Howie Lee's story. The Rookie, somewhat oblivious to the reason why The Howie and his mates are after him, has his own issues to do with an even bigger hooligan, Lady Boy, and a pair of expensive Siamese fighting fish. The two stories piece together to expose a grotesque picture of a rough, lower class Dublin filled with petty thugs and not much more than neighbourhood pubs, video stores and casual hookups to provide entertainment.

Under the direction of Toby Schmitz and Luke Cowling, who also provided a degree of re-design, Henry and Hawkins keep the work tight as they take the audience with them on their journey. Each maintains a solid thick Irish accent which does take a few moments to acclimatise too when combined with O'Rowe's text that is filled with nicknames and local lingo. On what appears to be a sparsely dressed stage, the two, in turn, utilise the space well to draw the audience in, as though the boys are having a yarn with mates, getting up close and personal and committing to the physicality of recounting fight scenes. There is a wonderful pace and poetry to the text which includes humour that has you wondering whether to laugh or cringe at the grotesqueness of what is being described, from the extent of Peach's affliction, the antics of his plus sized sister 'Avalanche', or the description of the stranger to soap, 'Flandingle'. In amongst the simplicity of the boys world, where we are given the impression of a basic education and warped priorities, O'Rowe gives the characters more depth and sensitivity with glimpses of more cultured influences like the belief in ancient Mayan mythology and the love that The Howie feels for his little brother Mousie, even if he puts his mates vendetta ahead of looking after the child.

The detail of the set, designed by Lisa Mimmocchi and constructed by Col Emmerton and Thomas Pidd, is subtle. At first glance there is little more than the bottle caps heaped next to one of the two odd chairs that The Howie and The Rookie occupy in turn. As the light moves with the performers, the detail of remnants of past fights and a broken chair left in the corner of a dead end brick wall lined laneway is revealed. The costuming has been kept simple and whilst similar, indicating that the boys belong to the same socio economic groups, have a uniqueness that reflects their character. The rougher, bigger, hot headed Howie is in black sweat pants, long sleeved t-shirt, hoodie vest and sneakers, an indicator that he doesn't really dress 'to impress'. The smaller, more timid, ladies' man, pretty boy Rookie is in zipped up Addidas tracksuit and trainers, their society's version of being 'dressed up'.

This modern version of an Irish pub yarn is presented with an honesty and sensitivity even amongst the brutality of the story. HOWIE THE ROOKIE is filled with twists, turns, comedy and tragedy and is delivered in fantastic, enthusiastic detail by Henry and Hawkins and well worth seeing. With the detail in the story, even if you saw this during its original run, which was nominated for 6 Sydney Theatre Awards, see it again as I'm sure there is detail that would have been missed and it is also interesting to see a performer revisit a character with a few more years of life experience under their belt.

HOWIE THE ROOKIE
Old Fitz Theatre
17 May - 11 June 2016

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