Intemperance - Liverpool Everyman

Intemperance by Lizzie Nunnery
Liverpool Everyman: 26th Sept - 13th Oct
Director: Gemma Bodinetz
Composer: Conor Linehan
Reviewer: Gill Cooke

Big things are set to follow for new graduate of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Young Writers Programme Lizzie Nunnery if this, her first and flawless full length play is anything to go by.

Intemperance is set in 1854, whilst a family live in the squaller of a small Liverpool cellar with no light bar a small shaft of light creeping through a crack in the roof which was stunnigly designed by Ruari Murchison, all around them merchants from around the world come to Liverpool to trade and the money abounds so much that the grand St Georges Hall walls grow bigger by the day.

Gemma Bodinetz's excellent direction helps you get straight into the story, the pace really puts you on the edge of your seat empathising with a family that struggles to understand why things are getting better on the outside but in the cellar things are just the same, Conor Linehams underscoring really adds to the mounting tension and gives the stellar cast a first rate atmospheric platform to really shine...and shine they do.

Brid Brennan and Kristofer Gummerus play husband and wife Milly and Brynjar Slidness with ample effection and love, whilst Brendon Conroy plays Milly's father Fergul giving a subtle but emotionally weighted performance. Matthew Dumphrey provided the show with a biter and angry performance playing Ruairi, that for once in a play doesnt seem out of place or coming from nowhere, and special mention must also be given to Emily Taaffe who makes her professional debut playing the part of Niamh, holding herself strong within the cast in a highly credible and stellar performance.

This play comes at a really piognant time in Liverpools history with being Capital of Culture in 2008, with so much money coming into the area, we only have to look at some of Liverpools inner city areas and ask ourselves have things really changed in the last hundred years or are things going to be hidden to the public eye, by politics and big events once again?

Intemperance runs at Liverpool Everyman until the 13th October for more information visit www.everymanplayhouse.com

Photos by Robert Day - Top:- the cast, Middle:-Brid Brennan (Millie) Kristofer Gummerus (Brynjar), Bottom:-Brid Brennan(Millie).