The volatility of 1970s Northern Ireland takes centre stage in this slow-burning kitchen-sink drama which serves as a microcosm for The Troubles.
Set in a small house on William Street, the piece centres upon the O’Shea family, with IRA patriarch Sean (Tyler Cowie) a fierce and volatile presence in a house that bursts with big characters. Matriarch Patricia (Chloe Downes, who also writes the script) is dry and foul-mouthed, while son Ruairi (Jackson Ryan) is drawn into his father’s criminal activities. Yet it is the complicated relationship of their schoolgirl daughter Jane (Esmé Anderton) with older UVF man Andrew (Campbell Andersen), who is on the opposite side to her family, which is the play’s point of conflict.
As matriarch Patricia, Downes is witty and acid-tongued, and it is through her frustrations about messy children and domestic life that help to root the piece so firmly within the home. Patricia’s relationship with Cowie’s Sean fluctuates, and this is the biggest casualty of the piece’s uneven timing. When the pair burst, it is sharp, but it takes a little too long to get there, and with a resolution which aims to shock but feels abrupt and slightly hollow.
Ryan’s Ruairi is angry and embittered, established quickly as a contract killer for the IRA despite his teenage years. It is a character clear in its intentions and aims, with the one-dimensional approach representative of the contemporary requirement to pick a side. Meanwhile, Anderton’s Jane is seemingly oblivious to the potential repercussions of her actions, while moustached Andersen’s Andrew feels a bit predatory when groping at school-uniformed Jane.
It is a tightly formed script, and one which pulls no punches in including sectarian slurs and using extreme language to express the intensity of feeling among both sides here. Yet this production is hindered by its slow pacing, with dialogue slowly plodded through on occasions, which robs the strong writing from fully landing.
Nevertheless, William Street is a production, and a script, which brims with potential, trying to squash an enormous conflict into the claustrophobic O’Shea kitchen. The production refuses to take a side, a noble approach but one that reduces some of the piece’s emotional impact too. With a little more refinement and slightly more urgency, the piece could burn as fiercely as the fury within both sides.
