A Man of No Importance

Synopsis

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself What happens when our deepest secrets are finally revealed? Dublin bus conductor Alfie Byrne is content reading Oscar Wilde poetry to his passengers and staging plays in his local church. But when forced to confront a lifelong secret, Alfie must learn to face his true nature and finally take a stand in the world. With a powerful story, loveable characters and a stunning score, A Man of No Importance celebrates the genius of Oscar Wilde, the boisterous streets of Dublin, and the bumps along the road to self-discovery.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 12 February 2010

The little Union Theatre in Southwark has bravely transferred its revival of a musical about a sexually repressed Dublin bus conductor putting on an amateur production of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, but I can’t see Alfie “hold very tight, please” Byrne selling too many tickets or shouting out “standing room only” every night.

A Man of No Importance proves, alas, a musical of little significance; it just doesn’t take off and there’s no second act worth mentioning. The Ragtime team of librettist Terrence McNally, lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty (the last two also wrote the charming Once on this Island) adapted a little-known 1994 film starring Albert Finney as Alfie (with Rufus Sewell, Tara Fitzgerald and Michael Gambon) for an off-Broadway musical with Roger Rees in the lead in 2003.

By the end of the first act we know that Paul Clarkson’s slightly unlikely, i...

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Latest User Review

Cassox - 24 February 2010:

I really thought this was going to be arse. However, it wasn't that bad at all. At it's best, it's a bit like a sanitised version of 'Father Ted' (meant in a loving way) and at worst a buttock clenching 'Disney does Ireland'. More than anything the earnestness the show takes the relationship between a bus conductor and Oscar Wilde, the saccharine sentimentalism and it the 'fist in mouth to stop myself laughing' gay bits really really let the show down. However that is the fault of the writing, not the production. There are some good performances, but the musical direction leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing new, but a nice little chamber piece BEGGING to be rewritten into something less trashy. ...

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