Writer: Una McKevitt
Director: Conal Morrison
There’s really nowhere better than the stage to explore familial grievances – the intimate setting, the ability to slowly release information to the audience, and the decades of intertwined history that the characters share make it the ideal dramatic set up. Una McKevitt’s Fair Deal, running at the Peacock until the end of March, looks like it’s going to do exactly this, hitting the cultural moment with references to the housing crisis, end-of-life care, vacuous self-promoters, wealthy people avoiding consequences for their criminal acts, and, naturally, dating apps. It’s an enjoyable evening that spins out of control at times, but always retains the ability to get a laugh from its audience.
The family play largely works because of its claustrophobic domestic setting, and this is what we have here: Keira Thornton (Caroline Menton) opens the play on her fold-out couch with Rio (Jack Weise), and soon we learn why the décor doesn’t scream “urban professional” – this was her grandmother’s house, and she looks after her uncle, the ailing and unseen Terry, who is to be moved to a nursing home the next day. Soon we meet Keira’s other uncle, Daragh (Garrett Lombard), an affable if chaotic and self-involved actor (I’ll never understand where writers get their inspiration). Liam Doona’s set is the star in these establishing scenes, as without being flashy or excessive it’s perfectly understated but garish, grubby but realistic, save for the stylised portrait of Keira’s grandmother swinging a golf club.
If these opening exchanges are occasionally amusing and tender, the play only really gets going with the arrival of Sandra “Sandy” Thornton (Aislín McGuckin), Keira’s fearsomely self-centred mother, who is furious about everything that is not dictated by her desires. From here, the descent (ascent?) to high farce begins, and there are many funny moments, but they jar with the dark subject matter by which they are scaffolded. While both dark and funny, this isn’t true black comedy, as the jokes and the misery don’t come from the same source, there is no interplay between them. In the latter stages the blend of farce and physical comedy are ratcheted up to unnecessary and unrealistic degrees; think Joe Orton’s Loot mixed with WWE wrestling, and you’ll get the picture.
Lombard and McGuckin are the star performers, with their seniority within the play’s family lending them extra depth, and they both act up to this responsibility – Lombard is utterly natural, while McGuckin is a terrifying demon who will stop at nothing.
While Fair Deal is a bit baggy in places, and sometimes the desired tone is unclear, it is refreshing to enjoy a well-crafted, genuinely funny play that doesn’t insist on itself – the actors were all having a wonderful time, as they deserved to, and they had this in common with their audience.
Runs Until 28th March 2006.
