Review: Strong acting and powerful scenes in observational play at Leamington’s Loft

There are some strong characters and powerful scenes penned by playwrite Sean O’Casey, who was himself involved in the politics of the revolution, being secretary of the Irish Citizen Army (the flag of which was ‘the Starry Plough’).

We watch a young married couple’s lives be cruelly wrenched apart, while trust and amicability among friends and family is replaced by selfish suspicion and possessiveness. Yet a ray of light attempts to glimmer through as a bitter and cantakerous old woman who seems to take pleasure in making others miserable is transformed - by witnessing trauma - into a kind, caring and selfless mother-like character. But then, following a cruel twist of fate, she too abandons her benevolence.

This darkness and despair - most of it revolving around the lives of the people left at home rather than the revolutionaries - is at times interspersed with moments of humour, much like real life. We grow to identify with the responses and needs of those whose lives are no longer certain.

And yet I could not help but feel there was something lacking. Loft director Gordon Vallins says he wanted to stage the play because of the “sheer exhuberance of the language” and the “energy and life” of the characters. I had been expecting heated passions and deep fury; I had been expecting to be thoroughly engaged and absorbed. But for me, that passion was not there. Some of the scenes dragged on for too long and the conversations failed to draw me in.

Despite these reservations, all the acting was strong, particularly by Pete Gillam as Jack Clitheroe and Lucy Hayton as his suffering wife Nora.

Sundari Cleal