Theatre review: A Holy Show, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
Writer and director Janet Moran uses the true story of the hijacking of an Aer Lingus flight to London in 1981 by a former Trappist monk as the basis for her comedy about the quirkiness of the Irish.
A Holy Show, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh * * *
In the course of the eight-hour stand-off at an airport near Paris, the cabin crew and passengers - the bickering newlyweds, the frequent-flyer mother and daughter, the elderly sisters arguing about whose grandchild they’re going to visit (all played with energy and efficiency by Caitriona Ennis and Patrick Moy) - undergo their own epiphanies.
The humour is gentle, predictable, and relies quite heavily on clichés of Irish life, particularly Catholic ones (Our Lady of Fátima even puts in an appearance). It also relies on being able to treat a flight hijacking as harmless, even ridiculous - a tricky proposition at the best of times.
Until 26 August