Conor McPherson’s last show at the Old Vic, Girl from the North Country, was phenomenal. A Depression-era musical set in Minnesota may not sound like an uplifting experience but it was joyous, full of McPherson magic and with a bunch of Bob Dylan songs powering it along to the delight of the audience. (Dylan himself is said to have wept when he saw it.)
His new offering is The Brightening Air set in an equally economically depressed 1980s County Sligo. In those pre-Celtic Tiger days, this is an evocation of poverty, rural Irish life and dysfunctional family. But McPherson confounds expectations yet again – because this is a very funny play. In it, there are echoes of Brian Friel, of Chekhov (McPherson adapted Uncle Vanya), of Irish myth and the poet W.B. Yeats whose poem, The Song of Wandering Aengus also gives the play its title.
Rosie Sheehy (Billie), Brian Gleeson (Stephen), Chris O’Dowd (Dermot) and Aisling Kearns (Freya) in The Brightening Air at The Old Vic.
The setting is a crumbling farmhouse where two siblings, Stephen (Brian Gleeson) and his younger, probably autistic, sister Billie (Rosie Sheehy) live a life of mere existence. This explodes when their older brother, Dermot (Chris O’Dowd) arrives with his very young girlfriend Freya (Aisling Kearns) – despite his wife Lydia (Hannah Morrish) already being in the house. The house itself, for all its decrepitude, is very much a bone of contention. Dermot wants to sell it, Stephen and Billie cannot conceive of living anywhere else.
Seán McGinley as Pierre
There is a lot of talk. The characters cover everything from love to death; more than once, Billie – who is obsessed with trains – relates the rail route to Varanasi where the soul can be washed clean so it can return to nothingness. With the arrival of the blind, possibly defrocked priest, Uncle Pierre (Sean McGinley) and his housekeeper Elizabeth (Derbhle Crotty) the talk turns to God.
The first half of the play runs a bit too slowly as scenes are set and relationships explored though at times it’s very funny (once your ear tunes in to the accents). After the interval, so much happens all at once that it’s hard to keep up. The ownership of the house is questioned and overturned. There’s magic and a miracle. The unworthy are struck down in truly biblical fashion. Then, after the upheavals, we come full circle and return to the everyday, the characters and their relationships all somewhat reconfigured but with life going on very much as it always did.
McPherson directs a uniformly excellent cast. Hannah Morrish is a desperate Titania, hoping for a love potion to restore her marriage. Chris O’Dowd is monstrously feckless and charming. Brian Gleeson is a wonderfully stoical Stephen, bemused by the madness that surrounds him. Sean McGinley beguiles with his likely duplicity. Aisling Kearns is a changeling, part faery, surprisingly cool headed. As Billie, Rosie Sheehy is staggeringly good.
Rosie Sheehy as Billie in The Brightening Air
They almost pull it off. It’s a play that is by turns atmospheric, magical, and achingly funny. It does, though, have longueurs in the first half and too much, sometimes too unbelievable, action in the second. For all that, it’s extremely watchable with oodles of charm – you really want to love it. And, after this McPherson run, they’re bringing back Girl from the North Country. Can’t wait.
The Brightening Air runs at the Old Vic until 14 June. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.oldvictheatre.com.
