How it’s New York: It’s part of Origin’s 1st Irish Festival running in NYC from March 23rd to April 28th 2024
How it’s Irish: It’s an Irish American play with a cast and creative team with strong Irish roots
“The Double Bass” is a literal and dramatic labour of love for actor Sean Gormley, who also translated Patrick Suskind’s award-winning one act, premiering at Origin’s 1st Irish.
The meticulous care over this brooding, comical and often informative tale is indicated from the opening encounter with a man ironing a shirt with intense precision, accompanied by the music of Brahms and in the company – always – of a double bass.
With the skillful direction of Labhaoise Magee and magnetic performance of Gormley, we are swiftly drawn into the sound-proofed and sparse apartment of The Player, which evolves as a metaphor for his limited and lonely life.
There is a lot to learn about the development of the double bass as an instrument and its place in the orchestra, not simply “sitting at the back since 1750.” And we seem to be in the safe hands of an enthusiastic teacher.
Gormley physically gets to grips with his strings, bringing them centre-stage and bowing a few illustrative notes, whilst drinking beer and sharing selections from his classical CD collection.
Something more sinister
But the humorously boastful claims: “it’s the very presence of a double bass that makes an orchestra”; and sometimes didactic asides, soon slide into something more sinister.
With echoes of Poe, our upright guide unravels, “why should a grown man live with an instrument that cripples him?”
Shifts in lights and sound – designed by Chris Steckel and Mason Pilevsky respectively – and the mounting mania of Gormley make us see a man in a mess, stymied by his infatuation with a young soprano and the “psychosis of having a job for life.”
This is a fascinating take on the human condition and what drives us to do the things we do and how easily we might be trapped by the path we wind up on. And you’re sure to discover some unknown facts about the double bass as the score of the piece unfolds, in a cocoon of marvelous music.
The Double Bass is playing at the cell theatre, 338 West 23rd St, New York, NY 10011 from April 12th to 28th 2024. Click here for tickets.
For more information on Origin’s 1st Irish Festival go to www.origintheatre.org
