Sarah Jane Lafferty is the writer and performer of this brand new one woman show. She is a born raconteur, and her conversational tone draws you in right from the start.  As a rather precocious child in Ireland, she watched Gabriel Byrne being interviewed on television and his life story inspired her entire career trajectory. Just like him, she became a teacher first and then waited for global superstardom – unfortunately that part of her tale was slightly less straightforward.

The writing is gently amusing rather than uproarious—there are moments of humour as she describes schooldays, drama classes and the rigours of hostel life, but you’re more likely to smile than guffaw. Being a massive Gabriel Byrne fan myself, I fully appreciated Sarah’s admiration of the great man, but I did feel that her story lost a bit of momentum when he disappeared from the plot and that the drama school and dreadful hostel in London had stories left untold.

Overall, it’s a pleasant, light-hearted piece of theatre with gentle charm and Sarah is an accomplished storyteller. Lasting only 50 minutes, the time just flew by, and I’d have happily stayed longer to find out just how she escaped the ‘Room of Doom’ in her London hostel!

****

Reviewed by Rona