Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Agreement

Agreement by Owen McCafferty. Image Carrie Davenport

*****

Give My Head Peace meets The West Wing in Owen Mc Cafferty’s playful political parody Agreement. An historical account, with a generous dose of satire, interrogating the days leading up to the Good Friday Agreement in April, 1998. The personalities, the politics, the pettiness as key players strove to negotiate peace without giving anything up. Charlotte Westenra’s superb direction releasing a maelstrom of mayhem as tables, chairs, urinals and unshakeable convictions are whisked endlessly about. The hand of history urging men with huge mandates to try fashion a future free of the past. A stunning cast of Ruairi Conaghan (David Trimble), Sean Kearns (George Mitchell), Dan Gordon (John Hume), Martin Hutson (Tony Blair), Andrea Irvine (Mo Mowlam), Ronan Leahy (Bertie Ahern) and Aaron McCusker (Gerry Adams) playing a stunning cast of historical figures lauded as much as lampooned in Mc Cafferty’s hilarious tale.

If we know how it played out, it's scary to see how it nearly didn't happen. Conor Murphy’s Civil Service set with its rectangle of night sky a cauldron where British and Irish counterparts look to put an end to decades of violence. Under pressure Unionist, David Trimble, the primary obstacle. Like the kid who owns the football sitting on it so others can’t play, Trimble has his heels dug in so far he seems to start at the knees. Gerry Adams watching as the game plays out might commit, might not. Shining light Tony Blair, believing his own messianic press, arrives to add guidance and wisdom, proving about as effective as an umbrella in a hurricane. Even as his steely side is eventually brought to the table. A grieving Bertie Ahern the light of reason and compromise, as is an impassioned John Hume. Overseer George Mitchell, as bewildered as a teacher on their first day at St. Trinian’s, nudges and steers from the wings. As does a demoted Mo Mowlam. The tragedy of her terminal illness compounded by the impression that had she been left at the helm the deal would have been struck in half the time.

Agreement, like the Jack Charlton era, pays a price for the last twenty six years. What once kept a nation on the edge of its seat and signalled unparalleled change can seem like a soundbite moment from Reeling in the Years. The euphoria, the thrill, the choices relived by those who were there lost on those who weren’t. The nostalgia of the older making for a younger generation’s history. Yet Agreement is a brilliant piece of political theatre, succeeding on the terms it sets out for itself. Mc Cafferty’s comedy sweetening the political pill by puncturing notions of self-seriousness. Showing sworn enemies finding a way to live together in the same, shared space. A lesson that never gets old.

Agreement by Owen McCafferty, presented by Lyric Theatre, NI and Gate Theatre, Dublin runs at The Gate Theatre as part of  Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 until October 13.

For more information visit Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 or The Gate Theatre