It is a brave writer who puts on a serious play in a time of economic difficulties when most audiences are looking for light relief or crowd pleasing plays that distract from monetary woes.  ‘Ghost Radio,’ written and directed by Eamonn Colfer is set in post apocalyptic, bombed-out city.

Grigri Foals, performed by Michael Conway, is interrupted by a young man, Kineaste Grown, portrayed by Tiernan Messit, climbs onto his roof with the intention of catching a signal form the last radio station. ‘Ghost Radio’ possesses echoes of Sarah Kane’s ‘Blasted’ and Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road.’ The world presented on the stage is nihilistic, with Colfer’s script being a meditation on the human condition and society.

The setting, a dilapidated rooftop, and characters possess no cultural baggage, allow the play to act as a universal commentary on the human condition, exposing a collective Jungian ‘shadow.’ The play addresses such themes as, humanity’s propensity towards violence and the subject’s need to seek out an identity through a communal grouping. Various of gangs are mentioned throughout the play, and the most horrific image of a collective is a giant rat, made up of thousands of rats, consuming everything before them.

Although the play presents a nihilistic world, there is also a spiritual theme. Grigri Foals ( Michael Conway) has found God through solitude and prayer, hence his aversion to any form of intrusion, when the young man invades his space.

He speaks to an owl, a metaphor for wisdom, Michael Conway’s portrayal of Foals is not only believable, but visceral. The character is shell-shocked looking and bombed-out like the city he dwells in. Conway, through his eyes, brilliantly reflects the horrors that he has witnessed from his vantage point on the roof.

The grim atmosphere is punctuated by a dark comic moment when Foals describes how a woman he fancied plunges to her death from the building. This act as a safety valve to the tension on the stage.

Michael Conway is excellently supported by Tiernan Messit who gives a convincing performance as a young man caught up in his obsession for a mind conditioned girl who acts as sex slave.

‘Ghost Radio’ is a thought provoking play and excellently written. The fluidity of the language is brillianty executed by the two actors on stage and the direction is well-paced. For anyone wishing to see an interesting play, ‘Ghost Radio’ is it.