47 Roses – Viking Theatre – Review by Frank L.

Written and Performed by Peter Sheridan

Until March 19th

In small letters, on the programme, after the title “47 Roses” the words “a love story” appear. And that is a somewhat surprising but shrewd description. Peter Sheridan tells his story, because it is indeed his story, beginning with the death of his father when he has just arrived on a bus in Derry. He immediately returns to Dublin on the same bus to be met by his grief-stricken mother, Annie. He reminisces about the big events which had happened in his childhood, most particularly the traumatic death of a brother but more light heartedly on the arrival of television and his father singing as his party piece “Frankie and Johnnie” with its cautionary advice “… there ain’t no good in men”. Gradually he introduces the figure of Doris who lives in Blackburn, Lancashire who is a long-time friend of his father who visited the family home regularly over the years. His father and Doris had maintained a copious correspondence over many years but when he dies they need one of her letters to find her address, so that they can write to tell her of his death. Mysteriously they cannot find any letters which is surprising as the father was a hoarder. This tweaks the interest of the curious Peter who tries to rationalise what he knows of Doris and of his father. His curiosity drives him to enquire. In the second half he lays out what he then discovered.

Sheridan’s story is littered with references to phenomenon which were common place once but have now largely disappeared. Television aerials on roofs, stamped hand written envelopes, visitors arriving in Dublin by boat … all part of a recent past. The voice of Count John McCormack is also part of that familiar but less frequently heard world. 47 Roses will therefore have a bigger appeal to a more mature audience as it may appear somewhat “old hat” to a younger generation. But Sheridan’s ability to mimic accents and telling mannerisms and to highlight irrational prejudices and tell-tale quirks makes the story one of intimate interest. He is in his element as he uses all his stage craft to reveal the essence of the individuals.

However the crux at the centre of the story remains the three people, Annie his mother, Peter his father and Doris from Blackburn. In the tricky world of the eternal triangle, the three of them appear to have made a much better fist of that complex piece of human geometrics than many other figures in history. Sheridan tell their story and in a way his story with varying degrees of love, admiration and respect for the three of them and the title “47 Roses” in some undefinable way seems to encapsulate the longevity and complexity of it all.