Pretty VacantTailors’ Hall★★★★★
Pretty Vacant explores gentrification and abandonment in the Liberties, dragging Dublin’s oldest neighbourhood in off the street and on to a spotlit catwalk for what constitutes a masterclass in site-specific theatre.
At the heart of this musical satire is dereliction, a theme emphasised by promotional barricade tape bearing the show’s name plastered over the facade of the abandoned premises opposite its venue. You don’t have to look hard to find derelict buildings in the Liberties, though if they are outnumbered at all locally, it is by sites of cultural and historical importance.
One of these is Tailors’ Hall, the city’s oldest surviving guildhall, tucked away on Back Lane within spitting distance of Christ Church Cathedral. Here lies Pretty Vacant, a sham public consultation on the topic of “setting the Liberties free”, which means shipping out its landmarks and denizens in the name of hotels and high-priced apartments.
The meeting is hosted by Carmilla (played by Ruth McGill), a former Eurovision star turned snaking property developer, somewhere between Anna Wintour and President Alma Coin from The Hunger Games. She has invited a series of speakers to talk (and sing) on the community’s behalf.
There is an indignant academic (Matthew Malone), a well-meaning but class-cosplaying politician (Emmet Kirwan) and a pampered “mural-ologist” (Camille Lucy Ross) who purports to comfort deprived locals with her art. Ross is particularly impressive in her delivery and control of the interactive space.
Alan Howley completes the main line-up, at one stage performing a tragicomic duet with Malone on the ineptitude of the local authority in the face of private industry. Musically, Pretty Vacant does not stick rigidly to Eurovision anthem pop, though it is never too far away from it.
Finally, this Performance Corporation show affords space to Anthony Freeman O’Brien – an artist, community worker and tour guide whose family has spent generations in the Liberties – to address more earnestly the issues facing his home. It is an inclusion that dispels any fears of a disconnect between the stage and surrounding area.
Runs at Tailors’ Hall, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Sunday, September 20th