Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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NITELINK 69N: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The sights, sounds and smells of late night urban transportation are all powerfully evoked by Nitelink 69N (Westmoreland Street, 2.45am). The dialogue is crisp and authentic, with some riveting individual performances extracted from a cast of veritable unknowns. However, by the time this meandering juggernaut rumbles into Saggart bus terminal ninety minutes later, that potential has, for the most part, largely been squandered.
To be sure, the general drunkenness on board does make for some wonderful early slapstick sequences. But the longer this production endures, the more muddled the narrative becomes.
Characters arrive and depart at arbitrary intervals, often without warning. In one promising subplot, an exhausted night worker is pelted with soft drinks cans, crumpled up cigarette boxes and assorted rubbish. But just as his irritation looks set to explode into violent rage, his tormentor abruptly exit at Clondalkin Village and the storyline fizzles out.
Elsewhere a swarthy middle-aged man attempts to befriends an inebriated teenage girl. But the premise is hackneyed and the interplay unconvincing.
Clearly, this bus journey suffers from having far too many characters and not nearly enough character development. As a result, it is unclear whether it is tragedy, drama or gritty social satire. What one is left with then are little more than a series of clumsy, half-formed vignettes.
The 69N, ultimately, is a peregrination which crumbles under the weight of its own lofty ambitions.
Shows: Thursday – Sunday, 0.00-4.00.
Running time: 90 minutes.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Off the beer a couple of weeks and now you’re lecturing the rest of us ha!
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
The ironing is delicious
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film The Never Ending Story…
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I’m pretty sure he wrote this before laying off the booze
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:20 pm
With $10,000 – we’d be millionaires!
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Am I missing somethign? These are all Simpsons quotes, right?
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Mine wasn’t a simpsons quote… 🙁
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
they have small hands and smell of cabbage
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
This is utterly unrelated to the thread but given the random nature of comments so far, I doubt it’ll make any odds and anyhow I have a bone to pick. A while ago I mentioned that a guy brings his baby into our office where her depressed sobs fill the room from eleven in the morning until well into the afternoon. He ran out leaving her alone with me (again) and she started her sniffing prior to roaring. So this time I took your advice and popped her on my knee and stuck beyonce’s ‘Single ladies’ on YouTube. She instantly went from distressed whinging to banshee-screaming. It was like I had rammed a hot pin in her. Her father heard her from the lab, it was that loud. Last time I take your feckin childcare advice……
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Racist baby, that’s the only explanation Sarah.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Did I mention the family are from Uganda?
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Yip, racist, racist baby. When will these racist babies learn, that’s what I want to know…
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Please stop.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Hey eoin are you gonna put up the boy getting his lad caught in his jeans one??
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
@ EW – yeah going to run one per day this week (there are either three or four in total, can’t remember off the top of my head!)