SEARCH FOR ANSWERS IN HORRORS OF THE PAST
Carr’s ghostly mix of gloom and humour shows how grief can distort the present
Audrey Or Sorrow Abbey Theatre Until March 30 ★★★★★
Marina Carr’s latest work is an occasionally bewildering think-piece, that keeps you wondering what era you’re in, who’s alive, who’s dead and who did what to whom. At its heart, this Landmark Productions/Abbey production is a kind of ghost story aimed at one of life’s most difficult aspects: how to deal with unpleasant memories that lie just below the surface always ready to poison the present.
It’s about the power of grief to distort love, truth and lives. Not a play for the casual viewer who likes things spelt out clearly, but it’s an absorbing journey into the mind we often prefer to hide. Even occasional reflections on the set’s shiny floor surface can sometimes give the impression of another world lying in wait.
And that’s part of the mystery surrounding the characters in this play, that jumps from childhood to adulthood, from childish games to reality, regularly mixing both together. And then you have the business of recalling a past that has been deliberately kept secret, often leaving even more confusion when an attempt is made to clear things up.
It’s quite a feat that Marina Carr has managed to inject some light touches into such a grim story of death and sibling love and hostility. And it’s not given a simple conventional ending to sort things out. At times the mix of gloom and humour involves an almost Monty Python-esque use of language, but the humour remains relevant to the characters. It’s not the stuff of belly laughs, although some of the audience members found fairly mild humour hilarious.
Rooting the story in present time are Maria and David, always pushing a pram or cuddling the baby inside. Theirs is not a straightforward story either. Around them are Maria’s sisters and brother, sometimes acting, speaking and dressing like children, leaving you wondering who’s older or younger, who, if any, is alive and who’s dead, but forcing you to sort it out bit by bit. Underneath it all you feel there’s a villain of some sort in the piece, but are you right, and how can you be sure?
There’s even mystery about who was born or unborn, and how somebody died, but there’s no confusion about the few occasions when David walks down the stairs carrying a small white coffin.
Anna Healy, Marie Mullen, Nick Dunning and Aisling O’Sullivan work well as an intriguing family group that keep you guessing and focused on a disturbing past, while Zara Devlin and Patrick Martins have the initially more transparent roles of a young mother and father who eventually have their own revelations.
The cast of eight are beautifully knit together by director Caitríona McLaughlin in a set that has some intimidating stairs for the cast to tackle.
Sinéad Diskin’s music lends suitably gloomy atmospheric tension to the more disturbing scenes.
‘It leaves you wondering who’s older or younger, who’s alive or dead’