Robin Lefevre's new production for the Gate of Conor McPherson's play, which had its premiere in London's Royal Court Theatre earlier this year, has much more edge to it than the London presentation. The gentle melancholy which suffused the play in the Royal Court is replaced here with a sense of combat, as if there might be something to fight about.
Yet the tale of alcoholic John Plunkett awaiting his nemesis in the undertaker's office where he has worked for years remains essentially the same. He acknowledges to anyone who will listen that he left his family because of cowardice as he slid down the steep slope of heavy drinking. He acknowledges to himself his remorse and his self-hatred for his failures.
But the acquiescent and passive love that his daughter offered in the London production is replaced here with a feistiness on the part of his daughter Mary, unseen by him for 10 years, when she comes to tell him of his wife's imminent death from cancer and to ask him to visit her in hospital and then undertake her funeral.
And even Mark, his young apprentice in the funeral trade, is here prepared to argue against the advice from Plunkett that might have sent him down the same lonely road as his mentor was travelling for most of his life. The play is enriched and deepened by this new emphasis and it is a better production than the London one.
The excellent performances by John Kavanagh as the tetchy and restless Plunkett, Donna Dent as the loving but toughened Mary, and Sean McDonagh as the hopeful Mark are finely judged and dramatically moving. Their often poignant and always comic one-liners are splendidly delivered. Liz Ascroft's set is more thoughtfully detailed than was the London setting and Mick Hughes's lighting is nicely balanced between atmosphere and illumination. This could well be in contention for the best new Irish play of year 2000. To see it and its production here is both to be entertained and moved and, maybe, instructed about true loneliness.
Runs until November 25th;to book phone 01-874 4045
