Arts:Blog

Theatre Review: Fleg ***

Anna Burnside reviews an entertaining revival.

The Queen has died and the flags of East Belfast must be lowered to half-mast. When Tierna from the council climbs their stepladder outside Caroline and Bobby’s beer can-strewn home, they set off a chain of events that jump from sectarian hostility, lurid sexual fantasies, unspeakable acts with an actual flag, jam sandwiches and, eventually, some kind of redemption.

In this revival of Meghan Tyler’s 2023 PPP hit, director Dominic Hill dials up the absurd comedy even further. Jo Freer as Caroline is unrecognisable in an all-leopard costume and body padding. She looks like a cross between Duane Hanson’s sculptures of American tourists and panto-ready Johnny McKnight.

Kevin Lennon drools and growls as her neanderthal husband whose obsession with the flag - pronounced fleg in these red, white and blue streets - manifests as Dani Heron as a Spice Girl-pole-dancer who is also the Queen.

Heron, who also plays the long-suffering council fleg wrangler, does a grand job of teasing Bobby with little more than a hair toss and wiggle. 

As the earnest Tierna, there’s more heavy lifting but she pulls together the exposition, the running sandwich gag and an ending that, if not hopeful, is at least not as black as the rest of the play might suggest.

Fleg is part of Tron Theatre’s Studio3 Season. For further details, go to the Tron Theatre website.

Photo by Eoin Carey.