Swing

In the dance class that provides the setting for Swing, a new play from the Dublin-based Fishamble company, most of the participants are only there to kill time. If the audience shares that modest goal, there are better places at the Fringe to achieve it.

May is a graphic designer dissatisfied by her career and love life, while Joe is a middle-aged victim of the recession. Along with a cartoonish cross-section of the local community, both come together to learn swing dancing, and with every lesson, we watch their friendship and life stories unfold and intertwine.

It's clear what Swing aims to be: a couthy, accessible comedy that demonstrates the value of friendship, interspersed with some neat bits of swing. While there is nothing wrong with that in principle, the lack of ambition at the heart of the play is where its problems begin. There is nothing challenging, daring or adventurous on display here, so eager is the production to charm its undemanding audience with its uncomplicated nature.

Unfortunately, the result is a drama that almost reaches the halfway point with barely a hint of plot development, a host of secondary characters with no function except as endearing caricatures, and humour so broad it would shame the laziest '70s sitcom. Steve Blount and Janet Moran bring as much enthusiasm and subtlety as they can to their broad-brush leads—along with all other roles, which they also play—but it's a lost cause.

Perhaps worst of all, the dancing is nothing special either.