Jane Brennan and Gráinne Keenan star in THE LOVED ONES by Erica Murray

The Loved Ones – Gate Theatre – Review
by Frank L.

The Loved Ones written by Erica Murray – Until 21st Oct, 2023
As part of the 2023 Dublin Theatre Festival

Nell (Jane Brennan) lives and works in a remote, non-descript farmhouse in County Clare which she inherited. She was an only child. She farms the land alone and to make ends meet she rents rooms on Airbnb. She brought up her son Robin, single-handed, who went off to England to work. There he met and married Orla (Grainne Keenan) who was coincidentally a local girl. As the play begins, we are told he died unexpectedly a few months previously. Nell is expecting Orla to arrive with Robin’s ashes to be buried but before she arrives, Gabby (Fanta Barrie) enters into Nell’s life. Gabby knew Robin in England and she has her reasons as to why she needs to meet his mother. Cheryl-Ann (Helen Norton) is an American tourist who is an obsessive bird watcher and now that her sister has died spends her time travelling. She is an Airbnb guest in Nell’s farmhouse. What Murray reveals in her insightful script is that each of these women is trying to handle their own personal loss where death has been central. Each is trying to deal with their individual grief as best they can.

Jane Brennan and Helen Norton star in THE LOVED ONES by Erica Murray

Erica Murray in her author’s note states “Although this play can feel like a comedy in moments … the underlying themes are serious ones of grief, fertility and how the hell people survive these hard journeys”. She believes that humour is how many people “deal with hard things”. She has written a script which bristles with comic moments. She gives Cheryl-Ann (Helen Norton) and Nell (Jane Brennan), the two more mature women who are survivors, many comic lines. Norton and Brennan each deliver them, in their very different ways, with magisterial timing. Cheryl-Ann and Nell are survivors of that hard journey.

Orla (Grainne Keenan) and Gabby (Fanta Barrie), on the other hand, are in the epicentre of their grief.  Keenan and Barrie, who do have comic moments, are more concentrated on the challenges of their immediate predicaments. Ronan Phelan’s direction of this complex narrative is deft and sure-footed. While the events which surround these four women create fear and uncertainty, Sarah Bacon’s cluttered farmhouse interior where furniture and possessions have accumulated over the years, creates a patina of familiarity, continuity and reassurance.

The four actors work together as a quartet beautifully. Their interrelationships are complex with the character of Cheryl-Ann being that of an outsider who has handled her grief the longest. Towards the end of the play, she gives a short speech which is a fine description of how people may find a way to handle grief. It was perceptive.

It is a play that deals with loss with a tender touch and much humour. The entire creative team, Rough Magic and the Gate Theatre have created a night in the theatre which is quite memorable.

Cast and Crew:
Jane Brennan is Nell
Fanta Barrie is Gabby
Helen Norton is Cheryl-Ann
Grainne Keenan is Orla

Director – Ronan Phelan
Set and Costume Designer – Sarah Bacon
Lighting Designer = Zia Bergin-Holly
Composer and Sound Designer – Tom Lane
Assistant Director (SEEDS) – Joy Nesbitt
Assistant Set Designer (The Lir) – Chrysi Chatzivasileiou
Assistant Costume Designer (SEEDS) – Toni Bailey
Assistant Sound Designer (SEEDS) – HK Ní Shioradáin

Photo: Ros Kavanagh