The Irish midlands come in for another psycho-social drubbing in Eugene O'Brien's new play for the stage. Well, it's not so much a play as a pair of interwoven monologues in which a man (Billy) and his wife (Breda) tell us of a weekend in their lives when they might just have a chance of getting back together to the love which, years back, had blessed them with two daughters. He has been living in a haze of alcohol with his lustful fantasies about beautiful young Imelda Egan. She has been relying on the fantasies of American women, published in a book she keeps hidden in a suitcase, to provide her with what little erotic satisfaction she gets. And then there is the weekend when they might meet in the same pub (with a dance floor) and go home together.
Under the telling direction of Conor McPherson (himself somewhat of a master of related monologues), the pair enact their separate versions of the weekend, each playing not only themselves but effectively all of their friends as well in the literal setting by Blaithin Sheerin of an elegant art gallery exhibiting paintings of harvest time. But the "pictures" painted by the author's words with two stunningly good and richly detailed performances by Don Wycherley and Catherine Walsh are of a bleak bedroom, populous barroom gatherings and a quiet canal bank. At the start, most of these verbal pictures are richly comic, but as it becomes increasingly apparent that Billy and Breda are isolated in a significantly dysfunctional marriage, the jokes become fewer and thinner and the audience's laughter, once raucous in its enthusiasm, peters out into rapt, anxious and silent attention to Billy's and Breda's plight.
The silence remains until it is finally broken by the cheers and applause of a well-merited standing ovation to greet the curtain calls at the end. This is not an evening for the children or the maiden aunt, but it is an impressively rewarding coup-de-theatre for those who can live with strong language and bleakly depressing situations. Paul Keogan's lighting adds much to the quality of the evening.
Runs until February 17th. To book phone 01 878 7222. Tours to Galway, Sligo, Portlaoise, Cork, Limerick, Wexford, Waterford, Longford, Monaghan and Belfast.
