Left Hand Lost – Smock Alley – Review by Frank L

Written by Cillian O’Donnachadha

22 Nov – 3 Dec – Boys School- Smock Alley

As part of a Double Bill with ‘A Fit Wife For A Revolutionary’

O’Donnachadha has taken the life of Dory Previn and used her lyrics to create this insight into her life. She was born Dorothy Langan in New Jersey to an Irish Catholic family. She recounts, as she battles with her mental instability, various aspects of her childhood which left her vulnerable when she entered the adult world. A good example is that she was forced at a tender age to write with her right hand even though her inclination was to use her left… a not uncommon experience in the nineteen thirties, hence the title of the piece.

Laura Kelly plays Dory. She physically looks the part with an appropriately over-sized pair of spectacles. Her lyrics are of high quality and Kelly’s rendition of them is the highlight of the show. The main characters who appear apart from Dory herself are her parents and then inevitably Andre Previn her husband. Somehow these individuals do not come alive in the performance to the same extent as the self-obsessed Dory does. Kelly creates a trip down memory lane as Dory Previn’s words are still worth hearing. Previn is the centre of this story; everyone else is in her orbit.

The brand new musical play starring Laura Kelly,
written by Cillian O’Donnachadha
directed by Katherine Murphy