Theatre Review: Breaking Dad

Cork Opera House

Ross O’Carroll-Kelly is back, paunchy and as obnoxious as ever. His trademark stupidity means it takes a while before he cops on that Traoloch, his daughter Honor’s boyfriend, may be his love child.

Okay, Cork, let's do this thing. #BreakingDad

— Ross O'Carroll-Kelly (@RossOCK) February 10, 2015

The year is 2022 and Ireland is enjoying what Ross’s father, Charles, calls the Celtic Phoenix. Charles, who fancies himself as a bit of a Machiavellian, is Fianna Fáil’s director of elections and Bertie Ahern looks set to be Taoiseach, again.

Ross’s shrill, botoxed wife, human rights advocate, Sorcha, is tipped to be the Irish ambassador to the United Nations.

But she can’t have any skeletons in the cupboard, so the prospect of her nasty teenage daughter sleeping with her half-brother is an absolute no-no. This is the set-up of a hilarious two hours of comedy, which largely centres round Ross’s attempts to get some DNA evidence from Traoloch in the desperate hope that he isn’t the result of one of Ross’s many flings.

Writer, Paul Howard, has given these caricatures some cracking lines and their exaggerated south-county Dublin accents never failed to amuse the audience on opening night.

It’s hard to sympathise with stock characters, but they’re very funny. However, Ronan, the scutty son of Ross, a result of a teenage indiscretion on the wrong side of the tracks, is vaguely worthy of some concern. Street-wise and now a father of nine children, Ronan (Laurence Kinlan) is trying to leave his troubled life behind him and fulfil his soccer dreams.

Rugby versus soccer is an underlying theme and the snobbery is palpable. Ronan is your archetypal north side gurrier, but is not without a smidgeon of vulnerability.

#BreakingDad is hilarious and well worth seeing. Rory Nolan is exactly how I imagine @RossOCK in the books.

— Joe Leogue (@JoeLeogue) February 11, 2015

Rory Nolan, as Ross, is great, full of bluster, vanity and utter stupidity. Sorcha (Lisa Lambe) threatens to walk out on the marriage if Traoloch turns out to be her husband’s progeny. Cue lots of slapstick comedy and an evening full of laugh-out-loud moments.

Final performance tonight