JUST LIKE A PILL // A THEATRE REVIEW OF "YOKES NIGHT"
March 11th, 2015, Dublin. The Court of Appeal declared Ireland's 1977 Misuse of Drugs Act void. They did so noting that the new additions to the Act were made without consulting the Irish National Parliament. This meant one very strange, and very surreal thing: for 24 hours, ecstasy, ketamine, mushrooms, crystal meth and a drug oddly called "Jeff" were legal in Ireland. The government acted swiftly and reclaimed the illegal nature by that Thursday, but for a small surreal time, anything goes within the clubs of Ireland. The night was referred to as YOKES NIGHT (Yokes being slang for "pills" in Ireland) and hashtags on twitter rang up almost immediately. #Yokes and #YokesGate popped up quickly and frequently and playwright/actor Scott Lyons recreated the night here, showcasing two young souls meeting by chance in a darkened room when all bets are off.
Lyons plays Harry, a young Dubliner ecstatic about the loophole that is legalizing drugs for a day. He hits the club with two of his best mates, but as they make out in a corner of the club, Harry wanders off and discovers Saoirse (Annette O'Shea). She's bold, beautiful, and just as excited for Yokes Night as he is. They both get high, not just off of pills, but off of each other. They frolic like the two drugged out youths they are, dancing terribly around each other, jumping in a freezing lake and running off to go camping in the middle of the night. It's then that Saoirse spills out a tragic and heartbreaking story, one that seems to be spilling into revenge on a dark and not so stormy night.
YOKES NIGHT shoots off like a rocket from minute one and never slows down. It's a 60-minute thrill ride of emotion, anchored by two outstanding performances. Scott Lyons, working off of his own script, is dynamic and relentless as Harry. He rarely slows down for even a moment and his physicality is quite impressive. Equally as impressive is Annette O'Shea as the troubled Saoirse. Her performance is thrilling and powerful, manic and filled with as much energy as heartbreak. Their chemistry is great, and the simple staging by Jesse Briton & Dimitris Chimonas (no set or backdrop) works completely in this manic show's favour. The script is chock full of great one liners and inspired dialogue and the end drops you off just as quickly as it picks you up. It's a quick night out at the theatre, but an inspired one and one that would rather kick you in the teeth than bore you. Bore you it does not. From Edinburgh to FringeNYC to its Off Broadway debut here YOKES NIGHT will send you out an a high. And it won't even be illegal the next day.
GRADE: A
Written by Scott Lyons Directed by Jesse Briton & Dimitris Chimonas Starring Scott Lyons and Annette O'Shea. Playing now through Sunday October 23rd at: Soho Playhouse (15 Vandam Street, NYC). For tickets: www.sohoplayhouse.com
MATEO MORENO is an actor and a playwright. His plays Happily After Tonight, Within Our Walls, Bohemian Valentine and Paper Airplanes have all been produced in NY and beyond. He is currently workshopping his new play Fairground Attraction as part of Athena Theatre's 2016 Playwrighting Group "Athena Writes" and is on the Board for Athena Theatre. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.