Marvel: review

Review of Marvel– performed in the Project Arts Centre, November 2013. Published in TN2’s theatre section, November 2013.

Noise pervades “Marvel” from start to finish. When it stops, it makes the performance all the more eerie, a damning silence. As the play opens, the rush of city centre traffic mingles with a news report that tears the life of Dion (Liam Hourican) apart. It is September 2008 and the bubble has finally burst.  Time is a finite commodity.

“Marvel” explores not only the economic crash but what life was like beforehand; literally every second scene is in flashback. This takes some getting used to for the audience but creates a pleasing juxtaposition of then and now. Voiceovers are heard; BBC announcers, economists, the instantly familiar drawl of Bertie Ahern. We swing between good times and bad, magic and horror, celebration and despair. It asks a lot of tough questions and it’s certainly not easy viewing.

Glamorous prostitute Marvel (an excellent Alma Eno) comments that “beauty is an unstable commodity” and the idea of finite resources form the core of this strange play. Elizabeth Moynihan, an accomplished playwright, contrasts the lavish, decadent world of the Celtic Tiger against the horrors of Liberian war. Time is a finite resource for Dion and Marvel; they just don’t know it yet. The first half of “Marvel” is absolutely stellar, keeping the audience on the edge of its seat as our two characters’ webs of lies spin out of control. There’s a lot going on for such a sparse stage – deception is as prevalent as decadence in the dying days of the boom, it seems. However, the last third of the play sees the plot unravel slightly, as the characters become more desperate and the cuts between past and present more jarring. The plunging into darkness, at first a brilliant scene-changer, becomes slightly flat. “Marvel” leaves the audience hanging for up to a minute; instead of making me want more, it was simply annoying.  

Criticisms aside, “Marvel” offers an awful lot to chew on. It offers a neo-Victorian look at a prosperous Ireland: where the people have become buying and selling machines, unable to feel. Dion is a shell of a man, eaten up by greed and ingratitude. He seems to know this, too, telling Marvel that “nothing was ever enough” in those last days. By contrast, Marvel’s sensitive portrayal of a trafficked prostitute rejects materialism, preferring love and security. Marvel is tarnished by the selfish, heady atmosphere in Ireland, but not totally – perhaps as someone from outside, she can hold onto what is important. “Marvel” poses plenty of challenging questions for the audience – did the country lose a little soul in those heady days of the last decade? Did we swap our feelings and morals for fast cars, big houses and flashiness? The notion of a people spoiled is embodied in Dion, who acts like a spoiled child when Marvel doesn’t behave as he wants. Ingratitude is indicted by “Marvel”, with tragic consequences when the bubble bursts.