‘Silent’ by Pat Kinevane – Reviewed by John Verling

A one-man play written and performed by Pat Kinevane.

Review of performance at Siamsa Tire, Tralee, 24^th February 2011

Just in case you don’t know me I’m going to put my cards on the table here right from the start. The writer and star of this one-man play, Pat Kinevane, is a good friend of mine, we both started school together in Norwood in 1971 carried on through the brutality of St Joseph’s in the ‘70s and out of Colaiste Mhuire in 1984. To top it all he’s left two tickets at the box office for me. Now Pat doesn’t know I’m writing this so he can’t be accused of buying a good review AND I’m going to be as fair as possible.

The play is about Tino, a Cobh man suffering no doubt from depression and now living on the streets of Dublin. Tino is probably an alcoholic too just to complete the mix of the average homeless person on the streets of our capital. Pat plays the part perfectly helped to no little degree by the two years he spent researching the part. At a Q&A session afterwards he told of meeting with and spending time with the homeless both in Dublin and in New York.  Again like all homeless people Tino has a story to tell and the story is told with great humour and understanding.  Pat really does nail the part. Tino is named by his Dad after Rudolph Valentino and parts of his life story are retold through re-enacting some of Valentino’s famous silent movies. Knowledge of Valentino and his movies is not necessary I hasten to add…. There are plenty of references to Cobh in the play and I wondered if the audience in Tralee would get them all but it didn’t seem to matter as they laughed and gasped their way through. Pat commands the stage for the full eighty minutes or so of the show and I don’t think I heard a cough from the audience throughout. A friend who came with me and had never met Pat before, remarks afterwards when we do meet him, that Pat appears twice as big on stage. That’s stage presence for you I suppose. By the end of the night the despair of a homeless person is brought to life on the stage but it’s the humour that somehow makes the story real and believable.

I think this was only the second or third outing of Silent so I don’t know if Pat is going to make any changes to it before he takes it on the road. It really is well worth seeing not just for the Cobh connections but for the brilliant piece of theatre that Silent is. . As I drove in from Dingle on a typical dark February evening I had a lot of things on my mind, like us all these days, and I thought a night at the theatre might just be the tonic and I wasn’t let down. Whilst the subject matter of the play is far from cheerful the humour and great writing do make Silent a great night out.

Look out for it when it comes your way.