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Set the scene: a Monday evening in grey, dreary Dublin. It’s lashing rain, your tummy is full post-Bunsen Burger. What better time could be afforded to watching a play set around a wake? In keeping with the Abbey’s prominence in promoting Irish theatre, Come On Home –  which has just finished a run at its sister Peacock Theatre – brings together exciting names from  the Dublin theatre scene for a play with discernible Irish themes.

Come On Home tells the stories of three brothers who return to  the family home for their mother’s wake in an unnamed yet recognisable country town. Michael (Billy Carter) is back from London after 17 years. Younger brother Ray (Ian Lloyd Anderson) has a broken business to deal with and a baby on the way with girlfriend Aoife (Kathy Rose O’Brien). Brian (Declan Conlon) is the violent, childless eldest brother, a Jekyll-and-Hyde character with a deep resentment for Michael. . Written by Phillip McMahon of THISISPOPBABY and directed by Rachel O’Riordan, it is a sharp and unflinching play which deals with sundry deep-rooted issues of our time and our country. Homophobia, Catholicism, paedophilia, disowned family members; the dirty secrets swept under Irish rugs revealed, over the course of the two acts.

Colin Richmond’s set design is perfect: the scene of every Irish grandmother’s floral, faded living room. Anderson, no doubt riding the wave of Dublin Oldschool’s success in the cinema, shines as naive, ernest, tough-guy baby brother Ray. His presence is electric, with bouncing rapport with Kathy Rose O’Brien as girlfriend Aoife. Michael’s monologues are captivating. The  character is played with depth appropriate to the complexities of his unseen past, away from home in Maynooth seminary and the underbelly of LGBTQ London. McMahon’s script is sharp and witty, showcasing the best of the Irish vernacular if not the best side of us. The poetic melody of patois such as “making a haims of it” and lines such as  “memory lane is a fucking dual carriageway now” keep the sombre storyline from overwhelming the audience.

While the second act perhaps over-extended its climax slightly, with two deeply moving denouements and storylines, overall Come On Home is a superb rendering of modern Ireland’s dealing with its inherited lot.  Perhaps the play could have been strengthened with a deeper focus on one reveal,  although one appreciates that life doesn’t always just have one problem. It is a poignant, important play which serves as a reminder of this country’s secrets, of the unspoken Catholic guilt that still lurks beneath, , and how an artistic medium like theatre can serve to ask probing  questions.

Come On Home ran at the Peacock Theatre 13 July – 4 August 2018.