Sunday Independent - Review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Emer O'Kelly of the Sunday Independent is one of the latest reviews to be published. To date all of the reviews have been uniformly good, and there is not much quarrel over the quality of this production of Philadelphia, Here I Come! ALAN STANFORD'S latest production for Second Age is Philadelphia, Here I Come! and a solid, competent, straightforward one it is. This is in no way pejorative, since the company's work is aimed mainly at schools audiences, and for teenagers seeing their first Friel come alive on stage, this is the way to do it.
Three of the cast re-create the roles they played in Adri­an Dunbar's production for ART NI several years ago, notably Marty Rea as Gar Private.
The others are Walter McMonagle as SB O'Donnell, and Conan Sweeney as Ned, the vainglorious "lad" from the town. All three have a fine edge, and Rea comes close to being superb as he postures, scampers, and mocks his own broken heart through Gar's last night in Ballybeg before he heads for Philadelphia and the doubtful joys of being the pampered and smothered son Aunt Lizzie never had.
It's 1964, and it will be a long time before he sees any­one again, whether it be the loving housekeeper Madge, or his faithless sweetheart Kate Doogan in her fine feathers as the local doctor's wife.
One of the joys of such a straightforward production is the recognition it gives to the exquisite writing, with every character drawn in fine lines that scream the agony of emo­tional nerve-ends stripped and put on display. And of course, the nerve ends between Gar and his father are a silent scream: "It's the silence that's the enemy," as Private franti­cally tells Public, urging him to the confidence of admitting need: for love, for memory, for hope. And no matter how often you have seen the play, the memories the father and son try to evoke, each living in a separate dappled past, break your heart anew.
Sean Stewart is an extremely good Public, and Aine Ni Mhuiri a good if somewhat pianissimo Madge. The cameos are almost uniformly good also, from Dearbhla McGuinness as Kate, David Heap as her father, Enda Oates as Master Boyle, John Olohan as the Canon, and Donncha Crowley and Dan Reardon as Uncle Con Sweeney and Ben Burton. Joan Sheehy, however, seems to be aiming for suppressed refinement as Aunt Lizzie when unrestrained vulgarity should be the order of the day. Roger Thomson and Andrew Adamson complete the cast, with set design by Eileen Diss and costumes by Leonore McDonagh: both are absolutely in tune.
Philadelphia, Here I Come! is at the Helix in Dublin and tours to the Everyman in Cork and the Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire.