LIVING QUARTERS. To 17 November.
Edinburgh
LIVING QUARTERS
by Brian Friel.
Royal Lyceum Theatre To 17 November 2007.
Tue-Sat 7:45pm Mats 3, 7, 10 & 17 November 2.30pm.
Audio-described 8 Nov, 10 Nov 2.30pm (+ Touch Tour 12.30pm).
BSL Signed 14 Nov.
Post-show discussion 6 Nov.
Runs 2hr 15min One interval.
TICKETS: 0131 248 4848.
www.lyceum.org.uk
Review: Thelma Good 27 October 2007.
The past as several different countries.
When families look back on their history, they’ll not recall it all the same. In Brian Friel’s Living Quarters a family have conjured up an arbiter, Sir, played by Stuart McGugan like an indulgent but always in-control being. Sir is equipped with a ledger of the events over an afternoon and evening when, recently returned from a UN Peacekeeping Mission, Commandant Frank Butler prepares, goes to, and comes back from a dinner in his honour in Ballybeg, Co. Donegal, Ireland.
In the family there are tensions and love between siblings. Frank, the recently remarried father, is unsure he kept his military attitudes away from them and his first sick wife. Adding to the emotional undercurrents is the closeness his five months-married second wife found with his son Ben while Frank was away peace-keeping.
The people who had least to do with the events are the ones who want most to change things. There’s the priest, Father Tom Carty, his drunkenness and ineffectualness brought out by Gary Lilburn, and son-in-law Charlie, whose portrayal by Robin Laing ensures we warm to and never overlook this rarely appearing character.
John Dove has brought together a very well balanced cast where all are vivid. There’s the contrasting sisters, divorcee Helen, Miriam the always with-food-in-hand wife and mother, and the young virgin Tina. Each is clearly drawn. Kate McGuinness is spot on as the etiolated (by fear and uncertainty) second wife Anna, while Ifan Meredith’s subtle playing of the only son Ben is very watchable.
Virtually all the action takes place towards the front of the stage, never really using the visible back half. It’s an interesting effect, ensuring Sir never feels like a puppetmaster, but a fellow seeker for a more comfortable ending to the story.
Published in Faber’s 1984 first volume of Friel’s plays, this is this 1977 play’s UK premiere*. It’s hard to understand why it is taken so long to arrive on our shores. Could we not accept an Irish soldier serving as a peacemaker? As Friel’s play explores, sometimes we hope to release ourselves from the past.
*It is the Scottish premiere; there was a production in the 1990s by Show of Strength Theatre Company at the Hen & Chickens in Bristol.
Sir: Stuart McGugan.
Commandant Frank Butler: Ron Donachie.
Helen Kelly: Irene Allan.
Miriam Donnelly Niamh McCann.
Ben: Ifan Meredith.
Tina: Kim Gerard.
Father Tom Carty: Gary Lilburn.
Charles Donnelly: Robin Laing.
Anna: Katie McGuinness.
Director: John Dove.
Designer: Michael Taylor.
Lighting: Jeanine Davies.
Sound/Composer : Philip Pinsky.
Voice/Dialect coach: carol Ann Crawford.
2007-11-01 09:35:15