Flawed two-hander about the trials and travails of gangster life

There is not enough emotional range in the script to keep us engaged for Idlewild’s 90 minutes

Ruairí Heading and Rex Ryan in Idlewild at Smock Alley, Dublin Michael Brown

Idlewild

By Jimmy Murphy

Smock Alley Theatre: Boys School, Dublin; runs until August 11

Rating:**

‘It’s hard work being a gangster.” If you are Anthony or Donal, the pair of gangsters who take centre stage in Jimmy Murphy’s new play Idlewild, it certainly is. Selling drugs, annihilating enemies, watching your loved ones get murdered because of your crimes . . . “They should have degrees for it in university.”

It is crime boss ...