1981, Everyman Palace, Cork

THIS one-man show written and performed by Tony Devlin of Brassneck Theatre Company is about the 1981 hunger strikes in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh in which 10 republican men died in their struggle for political status.

Devlin’s performance is impressive in its physicality. He portrays everything from RUC interrogations to the heartbroken wife of a prisoner visiting her husband in gaol for the last time. But Devlin’s material lacks substance.

It is a superficial treatment of the lives of these young determined men whose brute politicisation resulted in them joining the IRA. While Bobby Sands had global fame, this play seeks to bring to life all 10 of the hunger strikers.