Geraldine Aron's "Irish girl growing up and flying the coop" story is a sentimental tragicomedy overly light on the "tragi-"; even the real family schism of an Irish Catholic/Rhodesian Jewish marriage draws complacent audience laughter. It offers no new perspectives on the Irish experience in England, Gestapo nuns or any of the other usuals, and its ending has one and a half too many teaspoons of sugar for comfort. It's redeemed from the quagmire of Edna O'Brienland, though, by the company's lightness of touch and manifest joy in presentation. Gabrielle Reidy becomes a disarmingly gawky ten-year-old in flashback, and dear oul' James Ellis as her Da now has the market cornered in irascible old Irish goats. Unfortunate to be running at the same time as Dancing At Lughnasa up the road, but second best isn't a complete washout.
Written for City Limits magazine.
Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.
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