Overview
Greta, an Irish ex-patriot living in England, has been experiencing religious visions for years. Or are they merely signs of a mental disorder whose roots lie in Greta's upbringing? A strident non-believer, Greta has tried to suppress these episodes, but stress from a crumbling marriage and the birth of her third child have pushed her to the brink of suicide. At the opening of the play, Greta recounts fleeing a party and sitting in the middle of a road where she's nearly hit by a bus. Discharged from the mental hospital that took her in, Greta visits with her two sisters: Helen, a commercial artist who adopts an American accent to hide her heritage; and Aoife, a not-so-strict Catholic who has married and moved only minutes away from her childhood home. But on her first night out of hospital, Greta has a vision of a female banshee entering her room. That night, the sisters learn of their father's heart attack, and they return home to a confrontation with their overpowering mother, the Church and their father's death.Synopsis
Greta, an Irish ex-patriot living in England, has been experiencing religious visions for years. Or are they merely signs of a mental disorder whose roots lie in Greta's upbringing? A strident non-believer, Greta has tried to suppress these episodes, but stress from a crumbling marriage and the birth of her third child have pushed her to the brink of suicide. At the opening of the play, Greta recounts fleeing a party and sitting in the middle of a road where she's nearly hit by a bus. Discharged from the mental hospital that took her in, Greta visits with her two sisters: Helen, a commercial artist who adopts an American accent to hide her heritage; and Aoife, a not-so-strict Catholic who has married and moved only minutes away from her childhood home. But on her first night out of hospital, Greta has a vision of a female banshee entering her room. That night, the sisters learn of their father's heart attack, and they return home to a confrontation with their overpowering mother, the Church and their father's death.
Observer
Anne Devlin's marvelous new play is rich, dense and poetic, beautifully written and very funny.