“What’s your name again?” “Emily.” “That’s a beautiful name”, says Mikey as he takes me into the auditorium. The Irish protagonist of one-man show Rum and Vodka converses with the audience before the performance starts, while ‘Dirty Old Town’ plays from the speakers. This is an intriguing metatheatrical touch; we are immediately made aware of the artificiality of the situation. 

Conor McPherson’s play, written when he was only twenty, is the tale of a broken man who, having lost his job, goes on a three-day drinking binge inDublin. Jacob Shephard was captivating as Mikey, delivering the monologue with impressive intensity. The moments of stillness were the most powerful, when the long pauses meant that the creaking of the chair and the deep intakes of breath were clearly audible. The intimacy of the playroom allowed for direct eye contact to be made with individuals in the audience, further adding to the tense atmosphere. The confessions were unsettling, particularly the account of how he had failed to control his sexual desire. Appearing to be haunted by his actions, the shadows on the walls behind him seemed fitting, especially when he described seeing himself in the mirror.

The tension in the room was broken up by the interjections of dry humour, delivered perfectly by Shephard. At one stage, he pointed towards a laughing audience member and said, in a dead-pan manner: “I thought that was very funny.” There were also some delightful changes in expression when adopting the voices of other characters, including during his re-enactment of an absurd argument between two of his friends.

However, the performance felt overly-choreographed and a bit too guarded. Particular repeated hand gestures became slightly forced. The very nature of the monologue form can often mean that it is difficult to create a great deal of variation, but I wanted the protagonist’s loss of control to come through more strongly. There were points at which his vulnerability was evident, yet I was left unconvinced that Mikey had just been on a three-day bender. 

Perhaps having Shephard talk to the audience in character prior to the start of the play led to a sense of disjunction; there were two versions of Mikey that did not match up. Nevertheless, overall the production was very engaging: a troubling tragicomedy that provided a lot more laughs than expected.