23 May 2011 (Theatre Review)

Review by: Lauren O'Toole

Title:  Iron
Venue: The Complex, Smithfield
Dates: 10 May 2011 - 28 May 2011
Price: €12 - €15

Director: Vanessa Fielding
Writer: Rona Munro (Plays include Bold Girls and The Madien Stone. Munro has also written for Casualty and Dr Who!)
Cast: Eileen Pollock (Women on the verge of HRT, Bread), Liz Fitz Gibbon (Christ Deliver Us, Bookworms)

Nutshell: At 12 years old, Josie's mother kills her father, sentencing herself to life in prison and simultaneously stealing all her daughter’s childhood memories. Now 28, Josie attempts to rebuild her relationship with her mother and hopefully piece together her past.

The Good: Powerful script, great use of space.

The Bad: It could do with being a tad shorter.

You'll like this if: You’re a fan of psychological dramas and women prisons.

Avoid if: You’re just out of a women’s prison - let your hair down, do something fun!

Verdict: 4/5

Lauren's Full Review:
Iron begins before the audience are even fully aware that it has. While seated in the lobby, a female prison guard, played by Rebecca Grimes, points out the fire exits to us, before honing in on a lone young woman asking her why she is here. The woman goes on to explain that she has come to visit her mother and thus we are given the first indication that this is not so much a drama about prison life as much as it is about the complexities of relationships, in particular the relationship between a mother and a child: any mother and her child.
Director Vanessa Fielding grabs your attention with the unconventional start to proceedings and maintains it throughout with her intelligent use of the stark and cavernous space, encompassing the entire venue and constantly keeping us interested. Of course it takes more than a variety of focus points and good direction to captivate an audience and Rona Munro's thought-provoking script combined with a powerful ensemble certainly play a huge part in the success of this production.
Josie, played by Liz Fitz Gibbon, is just 12 years old when her mother kills her father and is sent to serve a life sentence in prison. Taken away from her old life by her paternal grandmother, Josie’s memories are cleared clean away, thrown out with her childhood photos and any defined sense of self. Just as Josie attempts to reconnect and re-establish her identity through a series of visits with her mother Fay, the audience embark on the journey with her, asking the same questions: why did Fay do it and what is she hiding? Fitz Gibbon is suitably vulnerable in the part of Josie, her slight awkwardness a contrast to Eileen Pollock’s eccentric and vivacious Fay - a contrast that is often a source of humour in an often bleak landscape. The mother and daughter are bookended by the prison guards, convincingly portrayed by David Gorry and Rebecca Grimes. While there is a temptation to interpret these characters as the stereotypical good cop/bad cap duo, Munro instead creates two secondary characters that are as well developed and complex as the main protagonists and never superfluous.
At three hours long the script could probably do with a little tightening but apart from this Iron is very nearly flawless and fits so perfectly in The Complex that the venue seems to become an essential element of the production. Those who like their happy endings will be disappointed as Iron finishes somewhat unresolved, allowing you to form your own conclusions - however, in my mind, with a play that gives you so much food for thought, this is an ending which is far more satisfying.
 

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