Sally’s Return – Viking Theatre – Review
by Frank L

Sally’s Return – Written by Michael J. Harnett
Tuesday 18 March 2025 – Saturday 5 April 2025 20:00

The play is set in the smoking area of a rural Irish hotel two years after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. A wedding reception has taken place the night before. The set is suitably non-descript with lattice screens, a green-clad arch, three comfortable chairs, a small coffee table, a stand-up circular table and several potted plants.

Gerry (Owen O’Gorman) enters this space to have a smoke and call his wife in Coventry to see how she is and bring her up to date on the previous day’s happenings. There is a great deal of backstory as you might expect with any family gathering. After a while, Sally (Ann Russell) enters. She has some unfinished business with Gerry which goes back a long way when her husband Martin and Gerry knocked around together. The troubles in Northern Ireland were then dominant. Martin adored his life as a mechanic and had found employment in the RAF. With drink taken, there was an incident in Dublin and Sally was determined to confront Gerry about it.  She was determined to know more about Gerry’s involvement and make him accountable.

The action then moves to later in the day when Sally and Bernie (Brid McCarthy) who are old friends have a chat during which one of the particular deceitful practices in relation to unwanted pregnancies comes into view. So each of these issues hark back to the comparatively recent past but whose tentacles continue actively to disrupt the lives of their victims.

These two principal stories emerge from a welter of current social tales. In consequence, the complexities and challenges of the issues are obscured. There is little investigation of why people behaved as they did. There is a tacit acceptance that they were entitled to carry out these actions because of the times they were in. Russell as Sally who carries the greatest burden does a fine job and O’Gorman and McCarthy are able assistants but the social trivia of the wedding reception gets in the way.

The recent past and its behaviours must be aired. In that regard, Sally’s Return is valuable but the mundane happenings obscure the tragedy that the two grim practices described.

A World Premiere –
Written by Michael J.Harnett
Directed by Vinnie McCabe

Performed by Ann Russell, Brid McCarthy & Owen O’Gorman