Lookout: Sweeping views on a city in crisis
An interactive play stages an intergenerational encounter between city inhabitants
Capital Dock Park, Dublin Fringe Festival
★★★★☆
Capital Dock is the tallest storeyed building in the Republic. Dubliners are rarely afforded these views; from a rooftop garden on the 22nd floor, a look in one direction takes in a landscape stretching from west to east, from the bunker-like stadium of Croke Park to the rocky terrain of Ireland’s Eye. To the north, the hangars of Dublin Airport are visible. On the street below lies a vast empty lot in the Docklands, secured for yet another office block. We’re even higher than the cranes.
It’s an excellent vantage point for Lookout, the interactive play by Andy Field and Beckie Darlington that stages an intergenerational encounter between the city’s inhabitants. The voice of a pre-teen – one of the cunning performers of The Ark’s Children’s Council – begins to emit from the small speaker in my hand, pointing out landmarks within my vision: the curves of a river; the chimneys of a busy seaport.