Cowboys & Angels

Shane Butler (Michael Legge) happens to live in London. He is a civil servant looking for a room to stay in the city and to avoid the long trip commuting back and forth. All the rooms he sees are horrible, small and with the toilet in the middle of the living room, or too expensive. While waiting to see another rathole, he comes across Vincent Cusack (Allen Leech) three years his senior. One of the possible landladies is an old lady with a cat (Peggy Coyne), who scares Shane away. The nice estate agent (Jennifer Barry) shows him a perfect place, but it's way out of his league in terms of rent, so she suggests that he shares the room with the other person interested in it. It happens to be Vincent. Shane's mother (Angela Harding) helps him move - he's just got three rubbish-bag full of things. She gives Shane a St. Christopher medal to protect him, because she's a bit afraid of him leaving in the city centre. Outside the building of the condo where now he's leaving, Keith (David Murray) leaves and lurks around. The audience feels that he's not a clean character. In their room, Vincent has already occupied every possible available location with his stuff. Shane settles as best as he can in his room and starts drawing a castle landscape. Vincent leaves, and Shane tries to find some available space for his own toiletries in the bathroom to no avail - Vincent has taken up everywhere; and as he's left the flat without saying anything, he can't even complain to him. Shane decides to go to a disco, but two bouncers (Jason Cahill, Robert Quigley and Cathall Costello) won't let him in just because - well, probably, just because of his boring, office worker look. Shane has to leave. Inside, Vincent is checking out a guy (Nigel Mercier) who's looking at him as well. They can't wait to arrive to the guy's apartment and make love. Meanwhile, Shane wants to order at a fast-food place because he likes one of the sellers. Gemma (Amy Shields) laughs when her co-workers take her cap. Shane tries to strike a conversation with her, so some of the girls who are waiting in the queue behind him giggle like morons at the dialogue. Shane has to buy some chips he probably didn't even wanted, and leaves. Shane arrives late for work... once again. His colleagues laugh at him. He tries to act non-chalantly, as though he had been working for hours, but he's reminded to clock in. All his colleagues give him his mugs so that he goes and makes coffee for everybody. Back to his condo, everything is neat, tidy, in order. Vincent jokes that if Shane doesn't like it, they could go back to how the flat looked like the day before. They talk about Vincent being at art school and knowing everyone. They reminiscence about the one time when Shane sat beside Vincent during his Christmas '98 examinations, and wrote in his paper that H2O was the chemical symbol for hydrogen dioxide. Shane also asks Vincent if he's say, and he answers he is. Shane adds that he isn't, to which Vincent says that everything says that Shane is not. They talk over a marijuana cigarette, and Vincent tells of Jimmy Doherty, the boy which was his first lover back in a school trip to Paris. Vincent adds that he's never slept with a woman. Vincent mentions that he has to prepare a fashion collection before he graduates, but that he hasn't even begun yet, and it's already late. Vincent daydreams of going to New York after graduation. Shane envies that Vincent has dreams and belongs to a community, the gay community. Shane comes back to the Supermacs fast food place, but another attendant (Julie McEvoy) attends him. Disappointed, when he arrives to his flat, Gemma is there, as she's a good friend of Vincent, who introduce them - and Shane admits that he's already met her at the Supermacs. Gemma spent two years in the USA and then she's come back to live with her parents, but doesn't know for sure if she wants to go back to art school. To enter the conversation, Shane says that he's considering going to art school as well. Vincent says that Shane's really a civil servant working for the Department of Agriculture. Vincent takes Gemma to his bedroom to show her his designs for the fashion show. Shane overhears them talking about him, and Vincent says to Gemma that he's completely square, and that he already has a full-time job. Outraged, Shane goes for a walk in the night. He stares at a bridge and the waters of the river reflect in his face. He calls Ma from a phone booth, and denies feeling lonely. A police officer is separating some drunk people. A bum asks him for a cigarette. He returns home and decides to take the St Christopher necklace from his neck. The thing gets tangled in a pipe box or something, and he finds a bag full of drugs. He takes them with him to his room. The petty drug dealers, Keith and Budgie (Colm Coogan) think it must have been somebody from the building. Later, Shane puts the bag back in its again. Keith discovers him. As nothing has disappeared, Keith is nice to him and offers to buy him a pint. He acknowledges Anne (Maeve McGrath) and the barman (Micheál Ã