A relationship rehashed and copious amounts of wanking, welcome to our latest reviews from the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival!

Remember Me

Rating ***

A college professor and his former long-term lover meet at the professor’s home whilst his new partner makes dinner offstage. They discuss their relationship, careers and try to make sense of what has happened to them since their break up, and to say the unsaid. This is the fairly simple premise of, Remember Me (pictured above) by Canadian playwright Michel Tremblay.

Tremblay is a major force in Canadian drama and literature, and this Québécois writer has won numerous awards. His work is rarely seen in Ireland, though there was an excellent production of his play, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon Summer a few years ago by Rough Magic, after which I thought we’d be seeing a lot more of his work. Strangely, that did not happen, and Good Dog Theatre are to be commended, for bringing another play from his very considerable canon to an Irish audience.

Only I wish they had picked a better one. The performances are good, particularly Brian Burns as the professor who has ‘settled’ for a man he doesn’t really love, the costumes and the ‘porn ‘taches’, are spot on, and the set is very well dressed with a lot of attention to detail. Though there are some well-crafted speeches, for me there was no real tension in the piece – nothing seems to be at stake for either of the characters.

The relocation of the action to Dublin also jarred slightly. I found it difficult to believe that a lecturer in 1981 would have announced he was a homosexual to all his students every year. Maybe this might have happened in Montreal, but not here. It’s a play worth seeing, however, and I would hope that Tremblay gets more outings of his work in Ireland. Hats off to Good Dog for continuing to bring us work by internationally acclaimed writers that we don’t see enough of. Sean Denyer

‘Remember Me’ continues at the Teacher’s Club until May 14 at 7.30pm with a matinee at 2,30pm on Saturday, tickets available here or on the door

Sexmaniac

Rating **

Imagine a Fringe show from 1980’s Berlin. Then imagine a parody of that. Then imagine a parody of that parody, and you might be close to getting somewhere near to being able to envisage this show from Anarchist Theatre for The Mentally Unhinged. There is a lot of screaming and white noise and angst and nudity and rolling around the floor. There are forays into the audience. But mostly what there is wanking. With apple cores, milk cartons, and real pieces of liver (which I had to take out of the performer’s shopping bag for him).

One scene of self pleasuring went on so long, that there were whispers in the audience about whether someone should go help finish him off. This was something said out of kindness. The set made a virtue out of plastic sheeting, and one of the theatre makers was taking video of the show (but of course he was), which was projected onto a curtain at the back along with ‘meaningful’ bits of dialogue. This was certainly a brave performance by the unnamed actor who gave it 100 percent – but to what end? Thirty years ago this piece may have had some shock value. Today it’s just a bit boring. Sean Denyer

Sexmaniac continues at the Teacher’s Club until May 14 at 9.00pm with a matinee at 4.00pm on Saturday. Tickets available here or on the door.