Review of: Aristocrats

In Brian Friel's lovely play, Aristocrats, we see a specific world coming to an end. Not unlike Chekhov's aristocratic homesteads, Mr. Friel sets his play on an estate that is close to collapsing but almost a century after Chekhov - and oh yes, in Ireland not in Russia. Reuniting for the wedding of Claire, the youngest living on the estate with her father and one of her sisters, Judith, family and friends converge for what turns out to be an unhappy event. Siblings argue, unrequited love rears its head, and hope for new beginnings disappears. To complicate matters, there is an American academic on the premises researching the estate and the county's history as well as digging into the family's generations of land-owners. Sometimes the information that turns up is not the accepted lore. As the day leads up to the nuptials, entrenched habits die hard. Claire, spoiled and confused, retreats to playing the piano, Judith plays the saint taking all the woes of her world on her shoulders, while their other sister, Alice, takes to the bottle. The girls' brother, Casimir, has in many ways remained a child completely fascinated by all things that most would find inconsequential, and he, like many aristocrats, has developed a raft of eccentricities. Alice's husband, Eamon, a man of limited means (read middle class), pines for Judith and waxes philosophical on the world around him. Throw in an absent-minded, unusually quiet uncle and a sickly, hateful father, a townie or two and the picture is complete. Caught between the privileged existence of the past and the "commercial" equality of the present, these people barely function. The gift of Mr. Friel is his ability to justifiably condemn his characters while simultaneously appreciating them and ultimately missing the structure of their presence. Like the American intruder, Mr. Friel seems fascinated by it all and the author begs the question what will happen to these people in 5, 10 or 20 years?

The Irish Rep's Artistic Director, Charlotte Moore, meets this challenging play head on. Unfortunately due to the cramped space of the theatre, the grandiose setting cannot be conveyed and often we feel like we're in the servants' quarters. The important thing, however, is the relationships of the characters and that is something Ms. Moore evokes from her cast. Orlagh Cassidy (Alice), Lynn Hawley (Judith), Laura Odeh (Claire), and John Keating (Casimir) make a convincing set of siblings in their treatment of each other and rise to the occasions of their individual problems. Ms. Cassidy is especially good at finding the various stages of drunkenness. Best of all is Ciaran O'Reilly, the Irish Rep's Producing Director, as Eamon. In a completely unforced performance, Mr. O'Reilly has Eamon always ready with a smile - perhaps in habitual subservience to his betters, perhaps in reaction to knowing a fool's game - that masks a well of sadness. When Eamon and his wife, Alice, look at each other while Judith looks on, the actors say everything without a word.

I remember attending the original New York production of this play some 20 years ago and not remembering a thing about it other than a few names associated with it and the set's dull whiteness of the estate. How much more this production will stay with me.

...end