Ideal World – Viking Theatre – Review
by Frank L.

Ideal World – written by Isobel Mahon

Dates: From Monday 26 February 2024 to Saturday 16 March 2024 @ 20:00

The play is described as “a comedy about online shopping, family secrets and second chances at happiness”. Merce (Isobel Mahon) is a middle-aged woman who now lives alone in an apartment with a great view of the M50.  Her mother recently died and she has moved away from the house they shared. She is a shopping addict and Ideal World is her favoured shopping channel but her defence to her addiction is that she uses the junk which she buys. She has a sister Alice (Rose Henderson) who is happily married and the mother of several children. Alice is bossy, complacent and conventional. Alice has just learned a fact from her mother’s will which she was not aware of. Merce was aware of this fact but had kept it secret for many years!

Merce goes to a bereavement counselling self-help group where she meets Ted (Donagh Deeney) a recently widowed man. Ted and Merce connect to a certain extent and ultimately they decide to collaborate to help Merce come to terms with her loss.

There are many scene changes, back and forth, which include the M50 apartment, the solicitor’s office, and the space where the self-help group meet. The set itself is rudimentary and consists of a variety of chairs and a traditional stand-alone coat rack. On the back wall, there are four wall-clocks which are evidence of Merce’s addiction to her favoured shopping channel.

There are only three members in the cast, so a few of the actors have to play more than one part. Deeney doubles as the family solicitor and Henderson doubles as Rosemary the convenor of the self-help group while Mahon plays Merce throughout.

The play lasts about 75 minutes. Of the characters, Alice and Rosemary are the most convincing even if Alice is a real pain due to her smugness. The character of Ted in comparison is a predictable, two-dimensional one. Merce herself who is centre stage for the play has some comic moments but her shopping obsession and the problems of her past do not combine entirely to create a credible whole. Probably because of the frequency of the scene changes, the play does not achieve a cohesive rhythm. As a result the comic moments, which are there, are diluted.

IDEAL WORLD – By Isobel Mahon
Directed by Caroline Fitzgerald
Starring Isobel Mahon, Donagh Deeney & Rose Henderson