Sean O'Casey's celebrated Irish trilogy starts with this tragicomic look at life under the English occupation of the 1920s.
Two men share a room in a Dublin tenement house, recreated on the Tricycle stage in all its gloriously grimy squalor. Seumas Shields (Frank McCusker) isa garrulous tinker who spends his time moaning that the Irish are hopeless.
His roommate is Donal Davoren (Aidan McArdle), a poet looking for peace so he can wallow in Shelley and dream up wistful verses. Unfortunately, tenement living means a constant stream of neighbours inviting themselves round, especially as a rumour has got out that Donal is an IRA gunman on the run.
Among those interested in getting to know a real live terrorist is the tempestuous Minnie Powell - and, figures Donal, if she's attracted to him because he's 'the shadow of a gunman' then where's the harm? But he hasn't bargained on the dreaded Black and Tans...
McArdle and McCusker make a great job of the two lead roles: the street-smart Seumas who (somehow) knows his literature and the romantic Donal, who just wants to wallow in the ineffable pain of living, make great sparring partners.
The piece is also enlivened by the supporting cast, a colourful assortment of characters, from the pompous but ignorant battleaxe Mrs Henderson to the peat-for-brains loudmouth Tommy Owens, and the brash but cowardly Unionist Adolphus Grigson.
Dominic Dromgoole keeps the action running smoothly and leads up gracefully to the play's tragic ending, while subtly emphasising that such oppressive occupation tactics are far from just historical.
Until Nov 6, Tricycle Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road NW6, Mon to Sat 8pm, Sat mats 4pm, Oct 13 mat 2pm, £8 to £17.50. Tel: 020 7328 1000. Tube: Kilburn
The Shadow Of A Gunman
