COMING to Lim
e Tree Theatre for one night only, Sunday November 17 at 8pm, ‘Guaranteed!’ is “an innovative approach to political theatre”. The show is a form of documentary drama focused on a factual account of what happened in Cabinet and banking’s top tier around the time of the grievous bank guarantee, September 2008.
Five actors play 66 parts, among them then Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan; there’s an early appearance by Bertie, Enda Kenny rolls along. And of course, the men in suits.
Of the five actors, a lone female (Ali White) has “a through-line in her characters. Hers is the outspoken, the dissenting voice,” comments playwright Colin Murphy, himself a current affairs journalist at national level. “Most of the characters don’t have a name in ‘Guaranteed!’ and that’s for legal as well as ethical purpose”. Making guesses as to what some of the conversations and who the influences were is part of the works.
“One of the themes is that of consensus in decision making, group thinking and a failure to ask hard questions”.
The follow up audience Q&A is what Murphy describes as “almost the third act” to this 75minute show of acting out, wielding scripts and alienating the audience/ country with what would be a legacy of displaced incremental hardship as the folly of unsupervised bankers was bailed out.
“The play’s words push to a discussion, almost designed to strike fear into the audience. Almost everyone stays in their seats. The story they see on stage has had enormous impact on them and their families so that they want to process it, tease it out, argue, tell their own stories”.
Colin Murphy’s feeling about his acclaimed ‘Guaranteed!’, produced by Fishamble: The New Play Company, is that it provides “a backgrouond, context, an understanding” of the historic decisions made and their consequences.
