(Peter Crawley’s article appeared in the Irish Times, 7/15.)
The best way to describe Amy Conroy’s new play for Hot for Theatre, co-produced by Galway International Arts Festival, is as a family drama combined with a mystery. With the imminent death of a severe father, Big Ted Donovan, three figures convene in his hospital room to decide the fate of his remains and to piece together his eulogy. It’s an evocative juncture, imposing some shape on a painful past, reckoning with a deeply submerged childhood trauma while trying to determine the future.
Ted’s next of kin is at a similar crisis point: named in the will as his daughter Laura but standing here as Mark, who Conroy makes equal parts dauntless and defensive. Long estranged and recently transformed, Mark shares the room with his twin, Gary (Will O’Connell), a successful gay businessman, and Sullivan (Mark Fitzgerald), a blokeish, uncomplicated friend taken in by their father.
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