‘How far would you go to get what you want’ – The House Keeper – Rough Magic

I’d no idea what to expect from this play, but the name had certainly pushed me in another direction. A period affair, like ‘upstairs, downstairs’ comes to mind or maybe a love story between classes, but this play was something else entirely, and one of the best new plays I’ve seen in Dublin in recent times.

The piece itself starts with a young woman having broken into a house where she intends to live, together with her three children, as she has been evicted from her own. The house was not picked by chance, as she knows the inhabitant to be an elderly woman she has know in passing for years, and feels that she will be able to convince the woman that both their lives can be improved by this arrangement. However, all is not as it seems in the house, and it certainly isn’t the quiet, sedate world she thought she was breaking into.

The three main actors of the piece are all strong in their own right, but Craggie stands out as the domineering force on the stage, often understated but stealing most scenes she is in. There are generally only two actors on the stage at any one time, and each battle the other with furious precision and timing. It is tight and well directed, as we’ve come to expect from Lynn Parker.

It is all the more surprising that the writer only has a few other works to her name, and is new to me entirely. Morna Regan’s previous work ‘Midden’ was very well received in Edinburgh, which is possibly the reason this new piece has such a good cast and crew working on it. She is certainly a name to watch out for in the future.

A one act play, of 90 minutes that flew along, with all three actors making the most of the sharply written script.

The tickets on May 8th are 15 euro, and are 20/25 otherwise.