The Gigli Concert – Review

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Tom’s Murphy’s superb play, The Gigli Concert, returns to the Gate Theatre with anticipated triumph. A masterful production combining a brilliant cast, set and lighting in a play that really must be seen rather than read. The Gigli Concert is a feast for the senses. It is the titular, omnipresent voice of Gigli who captivates both the audience and those on stage. One of the greatest tenors who ever lived, the Italian born Beniamino Gigli gives the play a soaring soundtrack – his beautifully dulcet tones adding a pivotal fourth part to a three-man show.

The Gigli Concert follows a few days in the lives of JPW King, an English Dynamatologist (similar to the notorious Scientology practice), a nameless self-made Irishman, and an overtly sexual housewife Mona – played in turn by Declan Conlon, Denis Conway and Dawn Bradfield. When the distraught Irishman appears at JPW’s office, a bizarre relationship begins. The latter, drunk, broke, and living in his office, is desperate for any kind of business. His second ever client, the Irishman, depressed and disillusioned, begins six sessions with JPW in the hope that he will be able to do what psychiatrists and psychologists can’t – help him to sing like the great Gigli. Distressed and frustrated in equal measure, the two men hit rock bottom. It is the compellingly emotive voice of Gigli, bellowing from their record player, that liberates them from the shackles of their despair. Undoubtedly the two male leads steal the show. Their physically riveting performances are charged with passion and perfectly timed with sharply humorous interjections.

More than simply a dramatic and passionate work, The Gigli Concert is a thoroughly humourous affair. Murphy’s sharp wit merged with the magical tones of Gigli and the sensational outbursts of the characters, creates a fiery atmosphere of laughs, tears and vodka. However it truly is the remarkably powerful performances by Conlon and Conway that make this production of Murphy’s seminal Irish play one to remember. It may be this production’s second running of The Gigli Concert at the Gate Theatre, but it is surely not their last.

The Gigli Concert runs at the Gate Theatre until 21 November. Tickets from €25.

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