Marie Jones plays at the Lyric Theatre are almost a Christmas tradition in Belfast by now, and as actors Dan Gordon and Tim Loane reunite for the Belfast playwright’s play Christmas Eve Can Kill You twenty years after appearing in the original production, it’s clear to see why.
A feel-good comedy, this is a play about the typical Belfast life of cabbie Mackers (played by Tim Loane), out on the town to collect some less-than-typical fares on Christmas Eve.
Paul Keoghan’s stage-set is sparse, with just a door frame, a white wire frame outlining Mackers taxi with chairs inside and half a dozen traffic lights on the back wall to create a bit of atmosphere. This simple stage-set works well throughout the play, as although Dan Gordon only directs a cast of seven, throughout the night we meet over twenty characters, each with their own story to tell and it could get crowded very easily.
From the husband stopping off in the pub on the way home from collecting the turkey, to the mistress pining for her man on Christmas Eve, these are characters which are varied and interesting, and the cast work wonders on bringing them to life. As always Tara Lynne O’Neil does a cracker job: playing the scorned wife among other characters, as does Katie Tumelty and the rest of the cast, Louise Parker, Julia Dearden, Matthew McElhinney and Dan Gordon.
Surprisingly, it is Tim Loane who plays Mackers who gives the weakest performance out of the night, missing his mark occasionally and seeming a little off at times, but he has an honesty about him that is charming and other than a few blips he keeps the audience hooked. However, the real star of the show is undoubtedly Sonny the Dog who has the audience in his paws from the moment he comes out on stage, to the moment he toddles off on his own, receiving a collective ‘awww’ from the audience.
Written over 20 years ago, there are some aspects of Christmas Eve Can Kill You that really do outdated and may not be the most entertaining for a younger audience, such as the British soldier manning a roadblock and the BBC actor who finds our dialect hard to understand, but the actors push past this and it makes for a heartwarming, yet humorous look at Belfast life during the holidays.
If you’re a fan of Marie Jones’ humour and like easy laughs that you can relate to, then Christmas Eve Can Kill You is the perfect antidote to the typical Christmas Panto and is running until 10th Jan at the Lyric Theatre. For more info or to book tickets, click here.
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