Flying Under Bridges
grabs the audience from the outset as Eve Marshall
(Julia Hills) explains to a prison psychiatrist that
she never meant to kill her daughter's husband to be,
especially not on their wedding day. Through a series
of flashbacks, this dark comedy looks at the reasons
and events leading up to the crime. Although slow at
times, there are many laugh-aloud moments, such as
Eve's husband Adam (Neil McCaul) donning a Shirley
Bassey outfit - complete with fitted gold lame evening
gown - and belting out I Am What I Am.
Many of the cast play two roles each, with McCaul also
offering a wonderful dry wit as the psychiatrist.
Julie Legrand takes on the role of Eve's mother
Lillian and Eve's childhood friend Inge, who is now a
TV personality, hiding her sexuality from the public
and coping with her girlfriend's death from cancer.
And it is here that the play suffers a little, for it
not only deals with these issues but also those of
asylum seekers, menopause and religion. There is also
a speech from Eve's activist son Tom (Anthony Kernan)
about the plight of the planet that seems very serious
and very out of place. However, despite this issue
overload, the comedy wins through most of the time,
occasionally descending into true farce, with cooked
cats being fed to the family and a corpse being pushed
around in a wheelchair. And by the time Eve finally
reveals how she accidentally killed her daughter's
fiancée, she has the audience completely on her side,
a tribute to both the acting talent of Hills and some
delicate direction from Joyce Branagh.