Tender Mercies – The New Theatre – Review
by Brian Merriman

Event Dates: 23/04/2024 – 27/04/2024
Author: Colette Cullen

Developed at Scene + Heard and New Theatre New Writing Week – Duration 55 minutes

‘Tender Mercies’, the latest work from playwright Colette Cullen, was inspired by a tragic headline of a person discovered in their home long after they had passed. These tragedies defy and shake our reputation for being an intimate society and often prompt the question: ‘Did anyone miss them? I suppose that is why it is so important, that for an hour or so, we get to meet ‘Mary Fortune’.

Mary is a woman of her era, with lovely prompts of that time throughout the script. In her 50s now, she recounts the highs and lows, loves, disappointments and demons of her time with us, in an incisive fine-tuned study of a woman on a downward spiral.

Don’t be put off by the inevitable, as Cullen has a gift for bringing the light into the darkness in her writing. There is a laugh-out-loud exploitation of the rich panoply of people who come into Mary’s hairdressing business. There is also self-realisation, an exploration of the influences on her life, good and bad, as we are taken on a swift, lean and emotional journey of anyone’s life…not just anyone, but our new friend ‘Mary Fortune’.

Sorcha Furlong is a master storyteller. She brings Mary’s charm, innocence, confidence, vulnerability and stark reality direct from the stage onto our laps. Her timing, under the deft direction of Caroline Fitzgerald, has us gulping with emotion seconds before or after we laugh along with ‘Mary’s great stories. The teamwork of the writer, director and actor is seamless and blended in one memorable voice.

‘Mary’, the only girl in a family of boys, craved love and on her journey, she found it in the men in her life, her Dad, twin brother Barry and Johnny her husband. Her difficult life with her Mother made her fear that she too would fail at loving.

‘In Vino Veritas’ is proven here as Mary self-analyses, setting out her faults and failings, her qualities and ambitions and her hope to redeem what she can in her anticipated future. Furlong has such a range and control of emotions that there isn’t a wasted word or scenario. It is clear at the end of the performance, that ‘Mary Fortune’ is not only worth remembering…but we will miss her.

Tender Mercies –
Written by Colette Cullen
Performed by Sorcha Furlong
Directed by Caroline Fitzgerald