Michael, man and boy, ably played by Arran Summers, walks down the aisle from the audience—and into memories. Picking up a particular prop, he enlivens each of the 5 Munday sisters and his uncle Father Jack. But when he comes to Chrissie, gazing wistfully at the horizon while hanging the washing, his touch unfreezes her desire to dance.
A beautiful beginning and one of many magical touches by producer Lorna Campbell who set the characters dancing about the insubstantial yet vivid set like a clockwork eightsome reel.
“It’s a house of memory”, explained Iain Carmichael the set designer, when I praised its ingenuity at the interval. I kept expecting the homely brown mixing bowl (we had the same one in my childhood) to get swept off the kitchen table—and I really thought either Chrissie or her inconstant lover Gerry would set off the fire alarm at one point. But no. Gillian Monroe’s stage management was seamless and there was just enough of everything, including space.
Amy Angus and Rhys Yardley composed a captivating pas-de-deux, in turns cheeky, bashful, blissful and provocative. The polar opposite (indeed a great deal cooler) was Kate played by Áine Rice, who nudged her accent north with as much evident success as her sisters and nephew sent theirs west over the Irish Sea. When I read the play years ago, this was the character I had least sympathy for. Not now. Like all true tragedy, even when interlaced with comedy, there are no villains in this play. Everyone follows their heart, with all its yearning and misgiving.
Father Jack (Allan Cowan) and Rosie (Anne-Marie Connor) both performed well the difficult task of mixing wilful agency with vulnerability and both gained our sympathy—as did the sisters coping with their embarrassing words and disturbing decisions.
Maggie (Hilary Linas) takes the domestic tension away with her japes but her heart too knows sorrow and like hardworking Agnes (Lynne McDonough) tries to hide that from the rest.
When Michael turned down the lamp (and Gordon Jahn dimmed the light) I think I would have sat in silence, so moved by the dance of emotions onstage, but the enthusiastic applause was so well deserved.
Another triumph for the Kirkintilloch Players, in this centenary year.
alchemicalquality 