Trawled - When Adventure Becomes Survival 4**** - One4Review
one4review | On 10, Aug 2024
A one-man biographical play, written and performed by Eoin Ryan, detailing his harrowing experience on board an Australian prawn trawler in 1999.
Eoin is an engaging storyteller, full of Irish blarney, and begins by recounting his early days playing hurling for Wexford, a sporting career cut short by injury. Following this, he is wrongly accused of making a series of abusive phone calls, which were in fact made by someone else using his name. Against this background, and having got himself into college, he decides to take some time out working in Australia to raise money to fulfil his dream of visiting Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, he has too much of a good time down under, and not only does he not save enough money to get to Machu Picchu, he cannot even afford his passage home. In his desperation for cash, he blags his way onto a trawler in the Coral Sea, despite having no experience, and where his fellow crew members are weed-smoking, heavy drinking weirdos. The trip is fraught with danger and unexpected challenges, leading up to a pivotal moment when Eoin can almost visualise the tombstone recording him as ‘lost at sea’.
This was the first performance, and there were moments when the delivery and dramatic tension were slightly under par, but nevertheless the play’s uncompromising language brought to life an exuberant story of adventure, crisis and survival, culminating in a moment of redemptive grace and I would recommend catching it.
****
Reviewed by Howard
theSpace @ Venue 45
16.05 (1hr)
Until 24th August (not 11th or 18th)
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