The Games People Play, Civic Theatre

A foosball table bought at Argos that includes a number of other games, is the centre piece around which Niamh and Oisin's lives, feelings and finances, are laid bare. It's been bought for their son's seventh birthday, not the cheaper one, but the bigger one, although, as Niamh seems to lament, was bought in Argos of all places. But money is tight for the couple, with having to borrow from the brother, something Niamh finds out, while waiting for the money to come in from one of the few event management jobs that are on offer. This is the reason Oisin is considering taking a nine month job in Birmingham. Their past lives, the present, the hidden and what will happen in the future, is played out against a lack of money and the idea of what happiness is, working its way out through a series of games and conversations, the prize for the winner is who chooses the next step, in this Irish Times Theatre Award winner for best new play last year. 

Gavin Kostick's premise is straight forward, focusing on the people and the situation they find themselves in. The language is always real, and delivered finely, with the drama ratcheting up in tandem with their thoughts, fears and lives unravelling, or rather, being exposed. Oisin is played very well by Aonghus Og McAnally, a man who keeps things in, not telling Niamh everything, a very Irish man you could say, but allowing the situation to expose the doubt, anger and stress, hopes, fears and reality. Lorna Quinn's Niamh has a more carefree attitude to begin with, but under this surface are her own doubts and fears, the lengths a lack of money will push them towards, or is it something more fundamental at play, and is a good counter to McAnally. The strained couple and their issues comes over very well, at times making you forget the fact that this is set in an austerity era, and it is the strength of the work. It does at times fall into the trap of preach-style lines about the crash, and those involved in it, while briefly the notion of was the 'mortgage sold or bought' rises; or the question as to what is corruption is asked, while Oisin cheats at various games. 

At the heart though is the question of what is happiness, and what can bring it about, or end it. For Oisin and Niamh there is that sense of a fall from grace as the idea of buying the present from Argos comes over as having really sunk, or ending up buying crappy Tesco own branded pizza and even living in Drumcondra, which has no doubt landed them in negative equity. And when they talk of money, the talk is of 'his' or 'her' money, or accounts, a separateness at play. Everything gets in the way of reaching out for their own happiness, and perhaps even when money was flowing, there was a sense of this unhappiness, but covered over easier. 

Linking it to the Celtic myth of Tir na Nog, with another Oisin and Niamh, does give the idea that looking back to a happier, or seemingly happier, past is one thing. But the idea of stepping foot back into it can be a different reality. We can't be forever young, and the reality of the home and children is beyond the 'happily ever after', the place Lapine and Sondheim take us to in Into The Woods, the harsher second act after the bouncy first.

It is a one act piece that doesn't feel like it's seventy minutes, that has a smoothness to it under the direction of Bryan Burroughs, with effective lighting throughout. It is a good, solid production and will keep you engaged throughout the performance.