The Home Place

Synopsis

The year is 1878. The widowed Christopher Gore, his son David and the woman they are both in love with, their housekeeper Margaret, live in The Lodge in Ballybeg. But in this era of unrest at the dawn of Home Rule, the seemingly serene life enjoyed at The Lodge is threatened by the arrival of Christopher s English cousin, who unwittingly ignites deep animosity among the villagers of Ballybeg.

Our Review:

26 May 2005

Those who love Brian Friel are going to be in their element with this one. Those who don’t may just keel over and die after seeing The Home Place, confirming as it might, all the criticisms theatre sometimes has thrown at it of being antediluvian, irrelevant and out-of-date.

The problem is partly in manner and presentation – certainly not in context. Friel has been at the Chekhov too long. Your heart sinks at the opening: Peter McKintosh's elegant set of french windows backed by a row of birches, Derbhle Crotty's spick-and-span, local Irish girl-made-good Victorian housekeeper, wreathed in thoughtfulness, listening to the sound of children's voices gently wafting on the breeze, taking in the laundry.

And yet, by the end, the heart is also taken hostage, surprised by the complexity and range of Friel's vision, nothing less than a ‘where we are' commentary via colonial land-owning (inevitably) and, unexpectedly, genetics and, by inference, our lov...

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Latest User Review

195.82.123.181) - 11 August 2005:

Given how wonderful such earlier plays as "Dancing At Lughnasa", "Faith Healer" and "Translations" are, this most recent Brian Friel is a major disappointment. It comes across almost like a parody of some of his earlier works, a sub-Chekhovian look at a mildly interesting period in Irish history. The nasty, clinical way the doctor treats the local poor (uneasily foreshadowing the experiments of Hitler's concentration camps) should provoke outrage but, in Adrian Noble's sluggish, unevenly acted production, merely brings on ennui. On the upside, Derbhle Crotty's much loved yet tormented housekeeper is a gem of a performance and there's a lovely cameo from Harry Towb as her drunk father. Tom Courtenay's weird delivery and physicality is unlikely to win him any new fans, and best not to draw attention to some of the appalling acting going on elsewhere. Nick Dunning's unpleasant English doctor and Sean Murray as his cockney sidekick, although they seem to have wandered in from a different play. The set, lighting and costumes are beautiful but this winds up as a very unsatisfying evening in the theatre....

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