Second-time playwright Stuart Carolan has crumbled under the massive weight of expectation bearing on this production: staged by Druid Theatre Company, it will play at the Abbey as part of the Dublin theatre festival next month. And what a turkey they have on their hands.
Seamus Lambe is a depressive, bedridden, failed Irish actor who verbally tortures his visiting adult children with pontifications and non sequiturs, but worries to his Nursey about them when they've gone. Oldest son Martin is tormented by grief and concern because little sister Kate has disappeared to London. Matty, an albino, has escaped to New York; his reasons become clear when he returns home and is repeatedly called "Snowball" by his hateful father. The larger problem, apparently, is that the mother died nine years ago, which emotionally crippled everyone and has Martin shouting at statues of the Virgin Mary because she deserted Jesus on the cross. Yes, it's the woman's fault again, but it's also the Church's fault, and Hollywood's fault ...
There is something impressive in the blasphemous energy Carolan is attempting to express in the play. But everyone here casts themselves as victims, and there is no sense of dramatic tension nor character development. The only real theatrical metaphor is provided by the huge mirror backing Francis O'Connor's otherwise bare set, in which we see the characters always seeing themselves - but the fact that we live in a narcissistic society is hardly a new insight.
The need to make this a big, main-stage production has prompted some uncharacteristically duff direction from Garry Hynes: actors try to make sweeping statements through their performances, when contained energy would have been the only possible saving grace. Only Aaron Monaghan truly impresses in his first fully fledged leading role as Martin.
· Until Saturday. Box office: 00 353 91 569777. Then at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (00 353 1 878 7222), from October 3.
