Review

REVIEW: Ciarán Dowd: Padre Rodolfo – 4*

Radio Ha-Ha! talks Ha-Ha!

Written by Ciara Kelleher

Review date: 10th August 2019

Don Rodolfo; the love child of Don Juan and Don Quixote has found God! If you are seeing Ciarán Dowd’s performance this year, you are in for a spectacular, dramatic and daring show. 

Cue soundtrack and Ciarán Dowd opens the show to an empty chalice only to spit take ‘wine’ over the audience. He has an astonishing way of interacting with his audience and got away with murder; between spitting on them, leaning on someone’s head and shouting in someone’s face about confession. However, there was not one walk out. When the material is performed in such a cheeky, passionate manner who could possibly fault his dedication?

I loved that the show had a narrative and a sequence of events. He performed the entirety of the show with such gusto and drew the audience in with his charm

There were moments that went wrong, one or two misplaced lines in which he commented on in the fashion of ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ and he made some really, really bad jokes. Jokes that were so bad that they were good, where the audience let out both a laugh and moan. 

In summary, this show is highly entertaining, and I laughed loudly and frequently throughout. It is one of the best character comedy performances I have seen in a while and the humour is pretty silly. If you liked Don Rodolfo, you’ll love Padre Rodolfo but just don’t go expecting anything too intellectual. 

Ciarán Dowd: Padre Rodolfo is on until the 25^th of August at The Pleasance Courtyard Upstairs. Tickets available here :  https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/ciaran-dowd-padre-rodolfo