King Keich at OranMor by Louise Welsh review by Pat Byrne

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King Keich at OranMor by Louise Welsh review by Pat Byrne

King Keigh, A Play, A Pie and A Pint

Directed by Paul Brotherstone

Beyond absurd, King Keich brought mayhem to the stage at Play, Pie and Pint, OranMor.

We meet the flamboyant Keich, game-show host (Grant O’Rourke) as he prepares for his ‘Open the Box’ television show. When he boasts of the large audience his show attracts, the glamorous and manipulative Mrs Keich, played by Meghan Tyler, feeds his greed and sense of entitlement as she taunts the egomaniac Keich. What a pair of outrageous horrors.

Alasdair Hankinson is kept particularly busy playing a variety of roles including assistant on the game show, an endangered bear and the puny King, whom Keich succeeds in overthrowing.

The three members of cast are all excellent, never flagging in Louise Welsh’s relentless full on farce. Quite how the writer concocted, and Grant O’Rourke delivered, those lengthy, hilarious and thought-provoking monologues, I do not know.

Amidst all the laughter is a tale of the insatiable greed and chaos recognisable in right wing politicians today – both sides of the pond. We got the message loud and clear as we laughed our heads off at the Punch and Judy violence and amorality. It’s a fun filled play despite the fact that Louise Welsh brings to it a sense of the macabre, a skill she has honed to perfection in her Plague Times Trilogy.

Guess it’s a new genre: ‘extra macabre and silly satire’. Quite an achievement.

Pat Byrne, October, 2018