I love going to lunch time plays in the Bewley's Cafe Theatre on Grafton Street, I've visited a few times and seen great plays - and they are generally in the region of an hour so very accessible for anyone who only has a short window to go to the theatre.
The latest opening in this theatre is "Bullfight on Third Avenue" which is by Eddie Naughton and centres on an imagined meet up between Ernest Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald in a bar in New York.
It's a 3 man play directed by Karl Shiels* and starring Dave Duffy (Leo from Fair City), Ross Gaynor and Rex Ryan.
The meeting between the two literary greats takes place just before Hemingway heads to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War. Through the Irish bar man and his stories of the Irish Civil War the horrors Hemingway will face when he covers the Spanish Civil are demonstrated. It is these stories that perhaps will do more to change Hemingway's mind about going, than the pleadings of Fitzgerald who sees Hemingway as planning to go to Spain only in order to follow his new love.
Rex Ryan as Hemingway is both commanding and convincing while Duffy and Gaynor put in excellent performances also.
The bullfighting scene was atmospheric and tense and along with the boxing scene showed the intensity of the love/hate relationship between the authors. And then there was the scene that that the whole play had been heading towards (I won't give too much away) - it was thought provoking to say the least.
As a long time Hemingway and Key West Fan (click here to see about my visit to Hemingway House), this was a must see play for me. I intend to go back and see it again over the next few weeks (and my mother is also planning on seeing it again with a friend). If you are in Dublin City over the next few weeks check it out too!
