WORDS Kayla Walsh
Dennis Kelly’s Osama the Hero is an unusual piece of writing. When the play opened at Hampstead Theatre in London in 2004, police were stationed at the doors out of fear that the public would react violently to its provocative title. However, far from being a vindication of terrorism, the work focuses on the atrocities that can occur as a result of the scaremongering that goes on in Western society, particularly among the under-educated, Daily Mail-readers of Britain.
Osama the Hero is set in a South London estate and revolves around five of its inhabitants: Francis (an angry young man), Louise (his long-suffering sister), Mark (a 50-year-old devotee of haute cuisine and teenage girls), Gary (an awkward 17-year-old) and Mandy (a classmate of Gary’s who has an unseemly relationship with Mark). The plot centres mainly on Gary, a student who has been asked to give a class presentation about a “modern-day hero” and chooses Osama Bin Laden as his subject. This shocks and frightens his neighbours, who convince themselves that Gary has been vandalising their estate and is a sort of terrorist in training. They eventually kidnap and torture him, despite the fact that they have no proof that he has done anything wrong. As Louise chillingly comments, “You don’t need evidence for terrorists.”
Directed by Eimear Burns, the production of Osama the Hero running in Players’ Theatre is a unique and ultimately enjoyable experience. The audience is ushered into a graffiti-covered disaster zone and encouraged to sit on worn old cushions strewn on the floor. When the first act begins, we are immediately bombarded with a mock-celebrity interview, a family argument, and a witty monologue. The characters talk over each other and the action moves rapidly from one part of the stage to another in a way that is both captivating and amusing. Projections on a screen above the actors’ heads, showing scenes such as Gary’s classmates’ reaction to his defence of Bin Laden, add more variety to the storytelling. In the second and third acts, however, the plot becomes increasingly confusing. A series of monologues, supposedly included to demonstrate the effects of Gary’s punishment on its perpetrators, are ineffectual and hard to follow. It almost seems like they were shoehorned in to make the play more abstract and literary. Frustratingly, many questions go unanswered. What exactly is going on between Mark and Mandy? Why don’t Louis and Francis properly confront Mark about his suspected paedophilia?
Most of the show’s faults are down to the writing, however, rather than the cast and crew. The only slight problem I have with Burns’s production is that all of the actors (with the exception of Ellen Patterson, who is from the UK) keep their own accents. The lilt of the educated Irish middle class doesn’t really fit with the themes of the play and makes the setting unclear. The show is perhaps an ill-fitting choice for Players.
The play is capably directed, and full of funny little touches (like Louise flossing her teeth while arguing with her brother). The cast are undeniably excellent. Colm Summers as Francis is the perfect balance of ignorance and defensiveness, vulnerability and violence. Claire O’Reilly shines brightly in the role of Louise, managing to remain a sympathetic character even while ordering the torture of an innocent young man. Ellen Patterson, though saddled with the somewhat poorly-drawn character of Mandy, gives a nuanced and entertaining performance, while Jack O’Donoghue perfectly captures the essence of sexually frustrated Mark. Most impressive of all, however, is the immensely talented Jim Connell-Moylan in the role of Gary. Effortlessly charming, with flawless comic timing, he easily wins over the audience — making his terrible fate all the more tragic.
