Reviewed: The Sanctuary LampSamuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin
There is a stunning sense of ceremony about Tom Murphy's new production of his 1976 play The Sanctuary Lamp. The magisterial thrust of Monica Frawley's cavernous design is cathedral-like, while John Comiskey's lighting literally seethes and breathes, catching particles of time and space as they move through the night, and casting a dusty, dusky glow upon the three characters who have gathered there for shelter.
Against the scale of this grand asylum, Murphy's refugees appear dwarfed - like toys or pawns in a grander scheme - and indeed they are a cowed and ignominious lot. There is Harry, a circus-strongman who has lost his strength and his family; Maudie, a simple 16-year-old who has lost her innocence and her child; and con man Francisco, who has lost his faith, both in God and the world. "Okay, so God created the world," he asks with severe sincerity, "but tell me what has he done since?"
Robert O'Mahoney's Harry carries the broken spirit of the strongman on his back in an exposed performance that finds the nuances of anger, vulnerability and a core of kindness at the heart of his character. Although diction problems conspire with the echoing space to swallow some of his speeches, the emotional strength of his performance is enough to carry meaning beyond the lost words.
Meanwhile, Declan Conlon finds humour as well as rage in his insurgent Francisco, ensuring that even the most laboured of his tirades against religion remains leavened by humanity.
Caoilfhionn Dunne's Maudie hovers like a ghost between these two battling titans. Her ethereal presence is almost stronger in her silence, as she stalks the soul-shattered men like an imagined embodiment of the constancy and simplicity of the "silhouette" of man's eternal, ever-healing soul.
Under Murphy's visionary direction, the play unfolds like a ritual, the church bells marking out time and the progress of the night as the exiles move tentatively towards forgiveness. Under the pink-heart pulse of the sanctuary lamp, they are slowly transformed into a "right holy family" after all. However, as Harry reaches up to change the slow-burning light, Murphy makes clear that this is a human, not a divine, salvation. And - "y'know?" - there is greater consolation for all that.
Runs until July 19th
