Are You Havin' A Laugh?! Bewley's Cafe Theatre @ Powerscourt

The sun was shining out in Dublin today, and Peter Sheridan's new one man show made sure the rays of laughter were indoors as well. In his easy, laid back style, Sheridan looks at the idea of humour, and in particular Dublin humour, through a selection of stories, and examples of what he terms the 'Gaelic Brain', in what is a very funny and delightful afternoon. To put it simply: Sheridan has done it again, and there is little to dissappoint in his new show.

With his ease and delivery, Sheridan makes it all feel like we're a group of friends sitting down while he happens to remember a number of stories that are either very funny, or Sheridan has a knack of making them funny, or more usually, they're both. He moves from one idea to the next with skill, even regaling us with Finnegan's Wake, getting us to join in the chorus, and ending with a Cecil Sheridan song, as well as a few stories that include Becket and Behan, and a mention of Jewish humour and of course Woody Allen. The backdrop comes into play as well, showing the 'Gaelic Brain' in full, as well as Nelson's Column and the spire. 

The Dublin humour, and Irish humour are there, including some nice nuggets of knowledge that help move it all along well, which the script does, reminding us of a Dublin past, as well as turn of phrase and style that is very much the present. Here he brushes up with politics, in a very subtle, yet funny way, and everything else that he can, but it is all very closely controlled and thought out. 

Sheridan is on his usual top form, drawing from all his expereinces in theatre and outside it, as well as his own way of viewing the world. That makes it all sound very grand, but the reailty is that Are You Havin' A Laugh?! is a great way to spend lunchtime, in the hands of a great story teller and performer. It is part if the Dublin: One City, One Book month, and it is a fitting event for it. Treat yourself and go.