NOELEEN DOWLING,
Sir, - I greatly welcome Eileen Battersby's perceptive and intelligent review of Sebastian Barry's play, Hinterland at the Abbey (The Irish Times, February 9th). I just wish you had published it before I and two companions wasted time and money seeing the play.
The initial reports, including that by Fintan O'Toole in your paper, suggested that this play, while perhaps flawed, was at least interesting, so we were looking forward to a thought-provoking, dramatically engaging evening. In reality , it proved to be nothing of the kind. Leaving all matters of taste and sensitivity aside and considering this play purely on its dramatic merits - for on what other grounds should it ultimately be judged? - this production is a huge disappointment. The script is both verbose and shallow; it meanders interminably without reaching a dramatic climax or any conclusions except the merciful final curtain. It is deficient in character, structure, insight and perception. Even played as broad farce, as it seems to be in the current production, it falls flat on its face. This is some feat, given its subject matter. A magnificent cast is totally wasted.
Why it was thought worthy of production in a major theatre, particularly in our national theatre, is beyond me, especially when a far more polished script and a much more fully-realised production such as Billy Roche's delightful On Such As We was relegated to the Peacock for its run a couple of months ago.
This sorry dramatic travesty raises very serious questions about the Abbey and it is perhaps timely that those questions are now considered in the light of the proposals regarding the theatre's future. - Yours, etc.,
NOELEEN DOWLING,
North Circular Road,
Dublin 7.