Review: WALKING WITH GHOSTS, Apollo Theatre

We've all seen him before of course. On stage, maybe here in London or in New York, at the cinema (or even on the iconic poster for The Usual Suspects) or on television, never quite a full superstar, but a star for sure, an actor of strength and power.

He looks a little older (as he would!) but, even before he speaks in that too-good-to-be-true Irish brogue, we can see his command of the stage, the bending of space that the best actors achieve with an effortless ease. And he talks to us without addressing us - we know who he is and we're going to find out what he is as the stories tumble forth.

Based on his memoir of the same name, Walking With Ghosts is our invitation to travel with Byrne through time, back to an impoverished childhood in Dublin, to a seminary in England, to the inevitable deadend jobs before an epiphany at a amateur dramatic group, to success and drinks with Richard Burton, to too many drinks, to tragedy and, at last, to a reconciliation with himself and an understanding that the ghosts of his past are living within him.

It's not quite a showbiz story, not quite a stand-up (though the first half has plenty of Dave Allen vibes) and not quite a confessional. You can half-imagine his agent asking for a bit more on this or a bit more on that, but Byrne is well beyond bowing to compromise and so too is his director Lonny Price.

The cliche has it that the Irish are born storytellers and there is probably something in that - like Liverpudlians, fortune is usually found elsewhere, so when you're away, you tell sentimental tales of home and hearth and when you're back home, you tell tall tales of mayhem at midnight. You swim in a sea of this stuff and the similes (there are some absolute pearlers in this show) and the metaphors rush to your tongue, too many at times to speak. So too comes the pacing of a yarn, the timing of a joke, the little self-deprecations that invite your auditor into human beings' unique conspiracy of conversation - we see all that in this show.

The technique is masterful, so impressive that one has to pause a little to consider the substance of the tales. They're highly personal, many about Byrne's family, and they weave joy and fear, comedy and tragedy, pleasure and pain into a tapestry that covers more than 70 years of a life, warts 'n all. Nothing is really unexpected - we know that there had to be a mentor that gave him the confidence to act, we know that what went on behind the closed doors of seminaries and Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s was appalling, we don't know, but half-expect, that there will be a battle with the bottle - and there is.

But it's all done with such craft that to complain of such matters would be churlish. Better to watch a performer in total control of his material deliver a gorgeous night of nostalgia, humour and poignancy.

Walking With Ghosts is at the Apollo Theatre until 17 September

Photo Credit: Ros Kavanagh

To post a comment, you must register and login.