Staging theatre in a pub is a good fit. Drama and bars complement each other well and the performance of John Patrick Shanley’s 30 year old New York play DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA in the Roxbury Hotel, St John’s Road, Glebe, works exceptionally well. The first act is set in a bar and initially the audience is not quite sure if Danny (excellent performance from Wade Doolan) is an actor or a drunken patron.

Danny’s banter with the play’s only other character, Roberta (skilfully realised by Karli Evans), soon assures us that is in fact theatre and we can enjoy the ebb and flow of the drama. The characters’ tones and attitudes oscillate between disinterest, antagonism, affection and amusement and following the variations in these states is very engrossing.

Danny is the archetypal angry young man. He has a volatile personality and his first response to most situations is aggression. Roberta leads a difficult life as a single mother with her dominating father and strictly religious mother and has come to the bar for a brief escape, to flirt and to make some sort of real and genuine connection.

Danny and Roberta gradually open up to each other and share some truths and real feelings. This is unfamiliar territory for both characters and leads to a genuine emotional connection. The ebb and flow component of this play emerges again and we wonder if this connection was real or if it was the acting out of fantasies.?!

Fiona Hallenan-Barker’s excellent direction and Anna Gardiner’s clever set design make the audience feel very involved. Lighting by Liam O’Keefe is simple and effective.

Well worth a visit, the Little Spoon Theatre Company’s production of John Patrick Shanley’s DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA is playing the Roxbury Hotel, 182 St Johns Road, Glebe from Wednesday 27th August to Saturday 30th August with performances at 8 pm every night and an additional matinee performance at 2 pm on the Saturday.