THE MAESTRO & THE MOSQUITA
by Carmel Winters
Theatre Lovett
An Taibhdhearc, Galway
October, 20, 2024
****
Last week, Jody O’Neill’s Grace genuinely blew me away, and I followed this up with Carmel Winters’ The Maestro & The Mosquita, which was equally brilliant, albeit for very different reasons.
I would surmise that the scripts for both of these plays were relatively short, focussing less on dialogue, and more on stage direction. And even though these playwrights are well established, in both cases, it was the performances more than the writing that stood out.
Bryan Burroughs’ endearing turn as the father in Grace was matched by an extraordinarily animated Louis Lovett in The Maestro & The Mosquita.
If ever I have seen an actor earn their pay cheque on stage, this is it. It is the most impressive physical performance I have witnessed since Aaron Monaghan in Clare Monnelly’s Superbogger at the Mick Lally Theatre last year.
Lovett’s ferocity and dedication is so intense, that after the show, I found myself asking: ‘Surely he can’t actually be enjoying doing that night after night?’
If sweat is a barometer of hard work, then the fact that Lovett’s vest is soaked through after 20 minutes might give you some idea. He sets off at savage pace, but somehow manages to maintain it for the duration.
The play follows an over-the-hill conductor living in complete isolation, save for a mosquita that visits him every night. What starts off as a feud slowly develops into a relationship in what is an unusual, family-friendly tale.
The plot is not particularly easy to follow at first, mainly because of the lack of dialogue. I had to work quite hard during the first half of the play to get a feel for what was going on, so I can only imagine how the children in the audience felt. Although it is the sign of a good writer when they can trust an audience to use its imaginations to fill in the gaps, which is precisely what Winters does. As it all draws to a close, we have grown accustomed to this unusual style of storytelling; we have learned to speak Lovett’s language.
Academy Award winner Stephen Warbeck’s score is stunning, at times giving the play a Hollywood movie feel. Sarah Jane Shiels’ lighting design beautifully complements the set, creating an aura of an empty stately home. The old fashioned stage lamps which circle the performance space are the icing on the cake. Muireann Ahern’s direction ensures the tempo never falters, but it is Lovett’s spellbinding performance that ultimately brings everything together.
To end with some praise for An Taibhdhearc, it is without doubt the most pleasant theatre to visit in Galway for a variety of reasons: central location, easily accessible, plenty of space, comfortable seats, adequate leg room, good view of the stage, solid air conditioning. These things might seem small, but they can make a huge difference to the audience experience.
