The dynamic Irish actor Pat Kinevane returns to the Odyssey with his latest one-man play, Before. It follows on the heels of such other solo shows as Forgotten, Silent, and Underneath, all of which have been produced by the Odyssey in recent years. Kinevane, whose home theatre is the Fishamble in Dublin, tells a weird, complex story in Before. Speaking in the voice of a rough working-class character named Pontius Ross, he announces early on that “I always hated musicals.” Yet not long after that he interrupts his monologue by suddenly belting out a song from The King and I. Soon he’s also leaping around the stage like a crazed chorus boy. Mostly though he talks about his life, experiencing a traumatic childhood from which he has not completely recovered. Full of anger and resentment, he prowls the stage, lashing into all those who have treated him badly, especially the grand-parents of Felicity, the girl he fathered in a one-night stand 21 years ago. They went to court to get a judgment against him, one that has kept him from seeing her. But now that she has come of age, they can no longer prevent her reaching out to him. Pontius, deliriously happy about that, goes to Clerys, a famous Dublin department store, to buy her a fabulous present. It’s there in Clerys that he turns into a song and dance man, sometimes parodying Broadway hits, other times putting heart and soul into them. All of this takes place on a near-bare stage with black walls which provide a striking contrast when Pontius suddenly dons white tails and tap-shoes and makes like Fred Astaire. Don’t think for a minute, though, that Before eventually becomes a light-hearted, upbeat show about love winning out over adversity. On the contrary, Kinevane once again flips the story on its head, sends it spiraling into darkness and death. That’s when we realize that the songs in Before are really laments, protests against the cruelty and injustice of the human condition.
