Friday, February 21, 2014

Sailing for Redemption

Emily Skeggs, Pearl Rhein, Jessica Grove and Terry Donnelly in Transport.

Irish Rep's new musical, about convicts bound for Australia, has a book by Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List), music and lyrics by Larry Kirwan (the group Black 47) and direction and design by Broadway veteran Tony Walton, but the results are pretty insubstantial. It seems to be aiming for a Les Miz-type story of hope and redemption for prisoners for women whose poverty has led them to prison, but it's populated with stock characters that never come fully alive.