(Tara Brady’s article appeared in The Irish Times, August 27th, 2015; Maja.)
It’s impossible not to feel a little disappointed watching Liv Ullman’s translation of August Strindberg’s most-performed play. But why? The setting – Fermanagh in 1890 – could not be bettered, as it has landed the production at Castle Coole, an impeccable neo-classical building, that lends an aura of airlessness and artefact to a work that finds these same flaws in the social order.
More impressively, the precise geography allows Morton and Farrell to split their vowels into a wonderfully distinct and expressive northwestern dialect. Both actors acquit themselves well.
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