Heaven by Eugene O'Brian. Southwark Playhouse, the Little, until 22 February 2025, 4 ☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

Photo Credit: Ste Murray.

Heaven by Eugene O'Brian. Southwark Playhouse, the Little, until 22 February 2025, 4 ☆☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.

“A spellbinding evening.”

Mal and Mairead are married and attending a wedding somewhere in middle Ireland at which each makes a discovery. Middle aged, they have one daughter who is married not very happily and with whom Mairead does not get on. Their lives have actually grown apart in every sense. What we get are two beautifully delivered monologues skilfully combined so that we learn why things have gone wrong first from one and then the other.The only problem – the Little acoustics initially presented Janet Moran, who plays Mairead, with a slight problem. That, and to be honest the Irish accent, meant not everything was coming across when you need to learn where you are and why, because she delivers the first one, but as the evening progressed she found the right tone and all was well. Performing to people on three sides of you is always difficult when it comes to directing your voice so that all of them get what you are saying. Mairead has taken refuge from the family affair in the pub where she meets an old lover, someone who twenty years ago she might have married and he is up for things a second time around. She is tempted to the point of actually packing to flee. Mal has other problems, suppressed homosexuality being one of them, and he is looking for Jesus. At the party he finds him – in the person of a young gay student - and he also is tempted into joining a private do being held by some of the guests in their hotel room where he is introduced to drugs at which he finds Jesus, who, when kissed, says Mal is very nice but older than his men. So what will Mairead and Mal do? Director Jim Culleton has kept them apart – they never meet – but he manages to mingle the two perfectly so that sometimes they are a presence in each other's story if not a participant. The play has been laden with awards in Ireland and at the Edinburgh Fringe - deservedly so. Will Mairead ever find the husband she has lost? Will Mal find Jesus? Go find out.

Cast

Andrew Bennett – Mal

Janet Moran – Mairead

Creatives

Director – Jim Culleton.

Set & Lighting Designer – Zia Bergin-Holly.

Composer & Sound Designer – Carl Kennedy.

Dramaturg – Gavin Kostick.

Photo Credit – Ste Murray.

Theatre, play