Conversations on a Homecoming - Review
“Memory is a Complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Conversations on a Homecoming is a nostalgic glimpse at an idealized notion of home. From within a small rural pub, a group of five young adults address the universal issues of friendship, identity, and what it means to ‘find yourself’.
The show is a one-act, set in a single-room bar named the “White House”, and as the name implies, the decor is strangely patriotic - not for Ireland, but rather America. As the lights rise, a photograph of John F. Kennedy upon the wall, along with an American flag and a miniature Statue of Liberty figurine lead the viewer to expect strong political commentary. Talk of politics, however, is strangely absent, and I’m left assuming this apparent appreciation for America was intended simply as a vague tribute to emigration, lost in translation either by the playwright or the set-designer.
Overall, the male cast members far outshone the females due to a combination of contrived performance and shallow writing. As a whole, the women in Conversations, are nothing more than plot devices functioning as the literary crutch to Murphy’s weak exposition. Beth Cooke as Ann presents the most compelling female character, but as she exists only to express Michael’s (Marty Rea) sincere desire to reconnect with the home and community he left behind ten years ago, her character is never developed, and as both an actress and a character she is never allowed to reach her full potential. She begins as an awkward, shy and backwards girl who responds with grunts and never speaks save from backstage. By the end of the night - at least half of which she was absent from, she has miraculously and spontaneously morphed into a free-speaking, open, and sexualized woman. Eileen Walsh as Peggy gave a trite and shrill performance on top of trivial writing, making her downright irritating bordering on painful. The character as a whole was flat and trivial, existing only to enhance the audience’ attachment to Tom. The costumes are not consistent to a particular era, Peggy being dressed as a 1940’s working woman while Liam is dressed as if he were heading to the disco. While I am leary to show any credit here for fear that these minute details were mere oversight, there is a strange poeticism to be found in this decision. By rooting each character in a different time period, they show the audience a picture of a clear and unchanging Ireland. An Ireland who is always harsh yet loved, who always pushes its own away and yet welcomes them back, an Ireland who cannot change but forces its own out into the world to do its changing.
