Having read this play a few times before seeing it performed live, I was in the odd position of knowing the list of ingredients and steps to the recipe without ever having made or eaten the dish itself. It’s never very fair, but I had certain expectations and hopes for the play. Additionally, Marty Rea once again is on the billing- bringing with him excited expectations from me based on his measured and crease-covered performance in Conor McPherson’s The Weir a few months ago. A walk from the house to the Gate kept the mind clear.
As soon as I walked into the auditorium, the production began to do its thing. Having the curtains already raised, Emma Jordan presented the set in its entirety. This was the inside of the main characters’ home, realised here with an almost dystopian fragility that evokes memories of the bunker from 12 Cloverfield Lane. As the only setting for a one-act play that deals with self-isolating characters who cyclically relive past heartbreaks to a sometimes disturbing degree, this set the emotional tone of the events to come. Having the curtains up so early gave the added effect of immediately placing the audience in the home, giving us no alternative to the “reality” of these characters. I was immediately transported to the world of Walsh’s play: closed off, dingey and unmoving.
Once it began, the director established an intimidating and intense dynamic between the sisters. The character of Ada, played by Orla Fitzgerald, is a tyrannical force against the more subservient older sisters Breda and Clara, played by real-life sisters Barbara and Jane Brennan respectively. The choice to do so aimed the play at a conclusion that brought a more balanced and unifying connection between the three sisters. This production still allowed for the development of the plot and the shifts in power and dynamics, as per the script. Though I found that the dramatic presentation of Ada as such a dominant force throughout the majority of the play hid the more sinister aspects of the older sisters, as well as overshadowing the almost caring maternal attention given by Ada to them. These are by no means the essential aspects of this play, nor does a lack of them leave the play radically changed or hurt- it just strips the play of a certain depth.
The performances of the sisters were strong for the most part, with Breda and Clara exemplifying the post-heartbreak self-isolation that is central to the play in many ways. At times parental and subtly in control of Ada, at other times child-like and almost in denial of their reality, Barbara and Jane Brennan had a tragic presence and strong chemistry for Orla Fitzgerald’s Ada to both compare and contrast with. Through them, Ada’s enthusiasm for storytelling seemed both youthfully hopeful and hopelessly naive. In a similar sense to Breda and Clara, Ada was performed as at times dictatorial and other times innocent and naive, complimenting the older sisters’ dynamic. This resulted in the role of control flowing from Ada to Breda and Clara and back again. Fitzgerald’s energetic movement and intense direction of the stories being told worked very well to convey the underlying urgency of wanting to experience life, stories, even heartbreak. These performances joined up to create the internal world of the play, full of cyclical and dysfunctional behaviours and mindsets from which they all want to depart but to which they are all deeply linked. The moments of violence between the sisters fell a bit flat, if only because they are so shocking to read but failed to make an impact on stage. That said, I must point out that literal violence isn’t what I’m looking for here as an improvement, necessarily- the performances of violence didn’t convey the ugly depth of these women’s situation and brutality and it is those performances that I would look to as needing to be more impactful. This aside, the three sisters were played with rock-solid dynamics between them, with the aforementioned power dynamics flowing effortlessly.
Marty Rea, as I had hoped, was fantastic. The three women created the internal world, Rea’s performance as Patsy gave us a window into the outside world. Showing both the gossip-filled and nosey nature of the people of the town, including Patsy himself to an extent, as well as the equally cyclical and isolated existence of Patsy himself, Rea’s performance realises the function of the character as the provision of context for both the audience and the sisters. The moments of intensity from Patsy in his own struggles with loneliness and life match the sisters’ violent cycle of existence and Rea’s vocal performance is quite brilliant, with Patsy’s transformation from man to prop to vision coming across as a magical ritual. Once again, Marty Rea has been a stand-out part of an already great show.Im
As a final positive note, I don’t think I remember a single phone going off throughout the performance. Certainly since the end of the pandemic and the return to live shows, every single performance I have been to has had at least one ringtone or alarm rise up at some point. It’s too much to hope that everyone in an auditorium will turn off their phones, but the odd disruption-free show is an absolute peach.
WORDS: Cormac Nugent
