Shoot the Crow

Synopsis

Four men. Two rooms. A toilet. Lots of tiles. The scene is set for one of the most unlikely heist dramas you are likely to see. Will Randolph, Petesy, Socrates and Ding-Ding's plans for a daring robbery see them living the life of Riley or will their constant bickering find them tiling to the end of their days? A warm, rich comedy from Belfast's answer to David Mamet. Contains strong language.

Our Review:

12 October 2005

Playwright Owen McCafferty resists being labelled a chronicler of working-class life. But he does admit that he focuses on people from his native Belfast whose stories may not otherwise be told on stage.

Shoot the Crow is a lighter affair than Scenes from the Big Picture or Days of Wine and Roses, the last two plays of McCafferty’s seen in London, though it’s no less sympathetic to the daily drudgery of its – yes, working class – characters. In this case four tilers who, despite their hard graft, never seem to get ahead or make good on their modest dreams.

It’s Ding-Ding’s last day before retirement from tiling – and a hoped-for future in window-cleaning. Young Randolph longs to buy a motorbike. Foreman Petesy wants to book his bright daughter’s school trip to France. And Socrates – who’s tormented by the recent separation from his wife and son and the parallels it draws between him and his own absen...

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Latest User Review

62.6.139.13) - 7 November 2005:

2005 started well for comedies in the West End with The Anniversary and Losing Louis but things have been less amusing recently with some severe disappointments, Mamet's Romance being by far the worst. So it's pleasing to find that Shoot the Crow is genuinely funny. At times this story of four tilers bungling a heist recalls the classic days of ealing Studios. It is also a play of some depth and perfectly captures the banter and underlying tensions of work "mates" who loathe each other almost as much as the job itself. The four man ensemble are uniformly excellent and one scene involving a tea mug superbly encapsulates the petty spitefulness (or spiteful pettiness) of any workplace, from a building site to office. This is a true ensemble piece but James Nesbitt is the marquee name. His character, Socrates, is a million miles from Adam in Cold Feet but Nesbitt still oozes his legendary charm but also conveys Socrates' determination not to repeat the mistakes of his own father. Conleth Hill's Petesy is a manipulative bully and the true quality of his performance does not fully emerge until a moving penultimate scene of unforseen loyalty. Shoot the Crow contains many moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity but also many others that will remain in the memory when the laughter has faded. ...

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