A Christmas Visit – Bewley’s Cafe Theatre – Review

A Christmas Visit – Written by Stewart Roche
Dates: December 2nd – 21st, 2024

On Christmas Eve, Andrew (Jed Murray) and Kelly (Lesley Conroy) meet, by chance, in a pub which was an old haunt of theirs in their youth. She now lives in Chicago and has it all; a successful career along with a husband and kids. He is staying with his Mother and sister Roisin (Helen McGrath) over Christmas. His life has been less successful and he is now single. They return to his Mum’s house which is his childhood home to have a couple more drinks. There is a certain reserve between them as they cautiously explain how their respective lives have unfolded in the intervening years. As the conversation develops it becomes apparent they have unfinished business.

The action takes place in the sitting room of his Mother’s house. It is a room furnished with a substantial patterned sofa and matching armchair with pictures on the wall and knick-knacks dotted about. It exudes a comfortable sense of familiarity.

Murray and Conroy convey the awkwardness that each of them has in meeting again. They both capture the cautiousness that each has in revealing what has happened in their respective lives since they last met. They gradually edge towards their unfinished business, but not quite as Kelly has to make a telephone call back to Chicago and leaves the room. An entirely different dynamic then develops as Roisin enters the room having left the ailing Mother upstairs.

This is an appropriate play for this time of year with its setting and storyline. However, the final sequence changes this plot and leaves the audience wondering what occurred earlier in the evening. This later section is less satisfying and alters the dynamic of the promising first sequence.