Bedbound – 3Olympia Theatre – Review
Tue 8th Aug 2023 – Sat 12th Aug 2023
Photo by Marcin Lewandowski

Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival present: Bedbound

This is the story of two individuals locked in a room. Over the course of the play, we slowly start to learn the circumstances that brought them to this point. The characters are never given proper names, just Dad (Colm Meaney) and Daughter (Brenda Meaney). Dad was once a slick furniture salesman in the biggest Furniture salesroom in Cork. We hear about his escapades in the furniture business, where he rose quickly to the top of Robson’s Furniture Emporium at the tender age of just 23. He planned to expand the business quickly, with an attempt to open 3 stores in one day in Dublin, a plan that was fraught with disaster.

The play was first produced in the year 2,000 in the New Theatre, Dublin, with Daughter played by Norma Sheahan and Dad by Peter Gowen. Enda Walsh was already quite an established playwright at this time, having written Disco Pigs (1996) and Misterman (1999).

Landmark Productions and the Galway International Arts Festival have a longstanding connection with the work of Enda Walsh. This production opened in the Galway Arts Festival in July of this year to much acclaim. In recent years, they have produced Ballyturk (2014), Arlington (2017), The Walworth Farce (2015) and Mistermen. The productions tend to have a star name attached, or more than one in the case of the Walworth Farce, with Brendan Gleeson along with his sons Brian and Domhnall. This production also keeps it in the family, with Colm Meaney performing along with his real-life daughter Brenda. Colm Meaney is known for films such as The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996). He’s also known for his long-standing association with Star Trek where he played Chief Miles O’Brien in both Deep Space Nine and the Next Generation. Brenda Meaney is less well known than her father but has still appeared in Love/ Hate and FBI: Most Wanted, among others.

As its humble beginnings might suggest, the set is quite a stripped-down affair, with sheets of plasterboards visible on three sides of the stage. The bed in which the two characters dwell is the main point of interest, as they hide under the covers and tug at the pillows.

The script carries many familiar themes for Walsh, with the characters being isolated and trapped in their own world. While it does not have the depth of some of his other works, the story of Dad and his movement through the world of Furniture is as bizarre as you would expect. The play contains a series of monologues with little interaction between the two characters. Dad has the bulk of the text and Colm Meaney is perfect for the role. He has quite a warm presence on stage and it allows the audience to feel compassion for a character who is violent and misogynistic. Benda plays Daughter as a warm and bright spirit, and is capable of holding her own against her dangerous father. Amazingly, it has been 40 years since Colm was last on stage in Ireland. It is unusual he has left it so long, as his performance is the undoubted highlight of this dark comedy.

By Enda Walsh
Directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull
Father – Colm Meaney, Daughter – Brenda Meaney