It triumphed in London and bombed on Broadway. Now Dublin gets its own production of this Danish family drama, an adaptation by David Eldridge of the 1998 Dogme film. It confirms that a tendency towards the hyper-theatrical is the talented director Selina Cartmell's signature, but may also be her Achilles heel.
The play is a battle between two dramatic worlds: a comedy of manners invaded by a tragedy. An extended family gathers for Daddy's 60th birthday: cue drinking, singing, speechifying, even a conga line. Big brother Christian (Ronan Leahy, in an impressive Gate debut) cuts through the revelry with a shocking accusation, and relentlessly pursues the truth until the family crumbles.
The key to making this work is getting the layering of moods and styles right: we need to feel the discomfort and the mounting sense of dread underneath the hysterical denial. Cartmell is in her element in meeting the play's complicated staging demands: scenes that simulate a filmic split screen, and group encounters where overlapping information and emotion is communicated. The long set pieces at the dinner table are brilliantly orchestrated, often rudely funny, and reveal an impressively focused cast, with Simone Kirby and Owen Roe (as the patriarch) particular standouts.
It is in the more intimate scenes that Cartmell's control sometimes slips, particularly in the second half. As shifts of focus become more frequent, the emotional register occasionally lapses into melodrama and momentum is lost. No such flaws are evident, however, in the perfectly composed final act, opening with a coup de théâtre that carries symbolic weight for the Gate itself. Cartmell's arrival feels like a new dawn for this venerable venue.
· Until November 25. Box office: (353) 1 874 4045.
