Musical emotions filtered through the game of Chess

By David Flynn

A highly-charged musical which displays the full gamut of human emotions is currently running at Athlone’s Dean Crowe Theatre and is packed full of humanity, love, and east-west history, with a few fascinating chess moves thrown in.

The music of the show, performed by Athlone Musical Society, which was written by Tim Rice and Bjorn and Benny from the 1970s supergroup, Abba, is a constant thread throughout the Athlone production. The storyline is set in the 1980s and features a chess battle between two grand-masters, one Soviet and one American. A love affair occurs between one of the chess champions and the manager of the other champion. There’s politics, intrigue, love, greed and betrayal during the story and each of the characters brings intense power to the story, which is played out alongside complicated games of chess, and through the compelling music score.

The musical ‘Chess’ is familiar due to songs from the show which were major hits in the mid-1980s. ‘One Night in Bangkok’ was recorded by Murray Head and ‘I Know Him So Well’ by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson. The show which is set in such far-apart and exotic spots as Merano, Italy and Bangkok, Thailand, had a previous run in Athlone in 2006.

The new show is directed by Alfie Kilduff (his eighth Athlone show to direct, after many years as lead actor with the Musical Society) and he has overseen a tremendous creation filled with great actors, dancers and singers.

The black and white look of the stage setting depicting a chess board and symbols was well designed and built by Jonathan O’Brien and the crew. The stage and performers were lit well throughout the many scenes of the show, and everyone was placed perfectly throughout all their many stage moves.

Chess ‘23 has a double-male lead of Derek James Collins (Freddie) and Shane Kelly (Anatoly) and both sang their parts superbly and acted with power throughout the show. Shane was consistently brilliant as a singer throughout the show. Derek must be highlighted for a powerful solo stage moment, where he delivers a huge personal performance singing ‘Pity The Child’, which was a show-stopper due to the intensity of the actor’s performance.

It’s obvious to see that the star of the Dean Crowe Theatre’s ‘Chess’ is Lucia Evans, who plays Florence, the manager of one chess champion, who fell in love with the other. Lucia, (who in 2006 won RTE’s ‘You’re A Star’ competition), brings great presence to the stage, and is popular with the audiences. Her character is a victim throughout, but stands strong with each disappointment, including a back-story involving the disappearance of her father, and her awaiting the arrival of her lover’s wife, leading up the song, ‘I Know Him So Well’ sung by Florence and Svetlana, played elegantly by Emily Lohan.

Those of note outside of the highlighted lead performers include the arbitrator of the games, played by Kori Kilduff, who brings a great reverence to her performance.

Another talented veteran actor, Kieran Kilduff, who was the arbitrator in the 2006 Athlone production, plays Walter De Courcy, part of the American team, but playing games on the Soviet side also.

Real-life American, Joe Steiner, plays Molokov, who is second to the Soviet chess champion. Joe, who has starred in musicals on two continents, brings great realism to Molokov and shows many facets of that character throughout Chess ‘23. In fact the entire male and female chorus are also great actors, and the male chorus particularly shines in one scene led by Joe Steiner’s Molotov where the macho men are drinking and in discussion.

Ray Collins has more than half a century of history with Athlone Musical Society, having appeared in his first show, ‘The Student Prince’ with Louis Browne and Sadie Flanagan in the then Dean Crowe Hall in 1971. Ray was at ‘Chess’ last weekend and found the choreography and the music of the show, “absolutely terrific”. “’Chess’ is one of my favourite shows and always has been and to me this is one of the best productions of ‘Chess’ I’ve seen,” said the former musical star. “The show that is on at the moment in Athlone is of West End standard, and is done very professionally. I thought all the chorus and the dancers were terrific. Kori Kilduff was really great as the Arbitrator.”

Ray said that he doesn’t always do so, but this week, he will return to see the show a second time.

“I’m very anxious to see it again, because it was great, and I thought the two lads’ voices were superb, and Lucia was wonderful,” he said. “But I thought the chorus and dancers really sold the show.”

Chess is currently running at the Dean Crowe Theatre nightly until Saturday, March 11.