Howie the Rookie

Synopsis

Howie Lee gets dragged into a bizarre feud of honour involving a scabies-infested mattress against The Rookie, which escalates into a spiral of personal tragedy. The Rookie, has problems of his own: massively in debt to a terrifying gangland figure for killing his prized Siamese fighting fish, he steels himself for a hideous revenge, until he is championed from a most unlikely quarter. Howie the Rookie is a nightmare vision of contemporary Dublin, where enemies and friends are interchangeable, and can even become an incarnation of the Mayan gods of death.

Our Review:

23 March 2009

Howie the Rookie hasn't been seen in London since its award-winning 1999 premiere at the Bush, and it makes a welcome return at the Old Red Lion in this neatly choreographed production directed by Benet Catty.

A play of two adrenaline-packed halves, the first narrated by Howie (Johnny Vivash), the second by 'the Rookie' (Kieran Gough) – two down-and-outs united by a surname (Lee) – it's easy to see why Mark O'Rowe's drama made such a splash a decade ago. Themes of vengeance, violence, masculinity and atonement are played out in the back streets of Dublin, richly evoked through its strong vernacular (at times indecipherable) and sharp observations of life on the other side of the tracks. There are echoes of everything from Joyce to Tarantino.

The Howie and the Rookie are both wanted men – the Howie for sleeping with the gargantuan sister (the 'Avalanche') of one of his best mates, the handsome Rookie for inadvertently spreading scabies through a ...

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Latest User Review

roderick - 27 March 2009:

A really challenging play and superb performances by gough and vivash. Highly recommended if you want to see something a little out of the ordinary....

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