‘Bullied’ kicks off 2024 Theatre calendar: check the review by Brian Merriman

Hartnett uses an intergenerational story to engage us and it succeeds very well in the hands of Vinny Mc Cabe as the ‘Grandfather’ and a polished Shauna Brennan as ‘Anna’ his granddaughter. Brennan is a fortunate young actor to tread the boards with such an established professional as Mc Cabe. They work well together and she acquits herself well in meeting the challenges of the impeccable timing Mc Cabe is known for, along with his considerable stage presence.

The script also harvests the intergenerational challenges of customer service being geared to one generation though depended on by another. The ‘customer care’ scene should be a compulsory part of any call centre training course.

It is quite a considerable length of time into the script before the ‘B word’ emerges. There are hints and a lot of space for Mc Cabe to entertain us with light-hearted Dublin humour. The importance of the adult listening, the consequence of pre-occupied parenting which fails to read the signs and the ultimate building of trust between the generations, makes this short piece of great value to schools and parents tackling this toxic culture.

‘Bullied’ is well-paced, has plenty of humour and handles this topic well. It is a finely crafted tale, which maximises the skills of both the production team and the on-stage performers, to ensure a lunchtime well spent at this city centre theatre.