Three Tall Women
Lyric Theatre, Belfast
In the salad days of a woman's twenties, the outlook is optimistic, anticipating happiness, prosperity and eternal youth. Impossible to imagine old age, mental and physical decline, the hell of an unhappy marriage and problem children.
In middle age, the mood switches to a mixture of mellow resignation and menopause-induced tension and anger.
In old age, everything changes again and, in a stillagile mind, can be found fun, ironic humour, caution thrown to the wind and a palpable sense of relief that the whole charade is all but over.
Thus, the three brave, sparky title characters of Edward Albee's 1994 play Three Tall Women, here receiving its Irish premiere under Jackie Doyle's direction for Prime Cut Productions.
In the first act of this intriguing play, Helen Ryan as A, Kate O'Toole as B and Ginevra Benedetti as C inch their way diffidently, almost deferentially, through their lines, caught in the stultifying atmosphere of an ailing old woman's bedroom. But in the second act, the pace and confidence level shift up several gears and the dramatic juices flow free. While the old woman lies dying in her bed, three inextricably connected female lives swirl and flutter around her. Not without its flaws - the languid, nervous first act, Stuart Marshall's unusually dull set, quite without theatricality or faded splendour - this is, nevertheless, a high quality, deeply satisfying production.
By Jane Coyle
Runs until February 10th before going on tour. Lyric box office tel: Belfast 90 381081.