Minute After Midday

Tron Theatre, Glasgow
4 stars
The spectre of the 1998 Omagh bombing casts a long shadow over the 
Irish Troubles last bloody gasp, even as it ripped a community asunder 
forever. The collective sense of shell-shocked grief that followed is 
unlikely to be captured better than in Ross Duggan’s perfectly pitched 
elegy told through the words of three survivors of this all too 
pointless atrocity.

First seen on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2011, Duggan’s trio of 
criss-crossing monologues relate the events of what became a weekend 
off to remember for all the wrong reasons. First there is Lizzy, the 
little girl for whom a trip to the shops will never be the same again. 
Next comes Mari, whose husband Brian went out for a thirtieth wedding 
anniversary present and ended up saving Lizzy’s life at the expense of 
his own. Finally, there is Conor, the young lad caught up in the 
romance of a cause he didn’t really understand, and ended up a bomber.

With actors Claire Hughes, Eimear O’Riordan and Jude Greer sitting side 
by side and bathed in a near holy glow against the blackness, each 
person’s story is told simply and without judgement in Emily Reilly and 
Duggan’s stark and elegant production for the 15th Oak company in 
association with the Gilded Balloon. As the tragedy forces the three 
lives together just as their words inter-connect, it’s as if they’ve 
come blinking into some celestial light moving slowly but surely 
towards reconciliation. If the healing really has begun in a still 
volatile Ireland, for anyone still not convinced by the waste of 
innocent lives, Duggan’s play should be required viewing.

The Herald, May 11th 2012

ends