'The Loved Ones' Is a Gift at the Irish

Playwright Erica Murray is just showing off with this winning group of women

“Boy, that was a good show last night!”

My husband was talking about “The Loved Ones” at Irish Classical Theatre, and I was impressed. If anyone wants to start a conversation about theater at our house, it’s usually me. The fact that he was still musing about the play the next morning says a lot about this terrific production.

Making his remark even more meaningful was that it came from a guy who likes football and Jason Bourne movies (and theater). “The Loved Ones,” was written, directed and performed by women, with themes of betrayal, babies and motherhood, and could have wrongly been pigeonholed as “a woman’s play.” He didn't see it that way.

Nevertheless, it is a play about women, and so much more. Love and lies, birth and death, denial and acceptance and loss and all the pain and hope that can come with every one of those. The magic of the story is that, throughout the entire telling of this enlightening and entertaining tale, playwright Erica Murray is never preachy, she never underlines her dialogue to make sure we know that This Part Is Important. The action – which takes part over the course of a day -- is as natural as can be.

For that we also can thank an extraordinary group of four actors, plus their director Kyle LoConti, all of whom really, really get what Murray is going for here.

Start with the incomparable Eileen Dugan as Nell, a salt-of-the-earth single mother of rural Ireland, whose only son, Robin, grew up, left home, married and is now dead. (We never learn how; it was about six months earlier.) Nell is mourning Robin and waiting for her estranged daughter-in-law to arrive so they can scatter his ashes along the western cliffs. Dugan dissolves into Nell so entirely that, even when she isn’t speaking, we know what she is thinking -- or at least wish we knew. It is a subtle and standout performance.

Orla, the son’s widow, is given a prickly authenticity by Rebecca Elkin. Even before she arrives, we are given to understand Orla is “difficult.” That impression gets challenged as she unburdens herself to Nell. Though Nell has problems of her own, she doesn’t want trouble so she listens, processing it all, not wanting trouble, and responding as appropriately as she can while Orla is overwhelmed by a sense of failure and of loss. Elkin makes her pain palpable.

And that happens even before Orla knows what Nell has just found out: That Robin had an affair with Gabby, one of his students at university, and the young woman that same day, seven months pregnant. Unable to keep her condition a secret any longer, Gabby turns to Robin’s mom for help. Ember Tate-Steele handles this tricky role with appealing bluntness, as Gabby’s naïve pragmaticism runs into the real lives of Nell and Orla.

Smirna Mercedes boisterously rounds out the foursome as Cheryl-Ann, a middle-aged American who booked a room in Nell’s cottage via Airbnb so she can tick some Irish birds off on her bucket list. Vacationing on her own, she enthusiastically inserts herself into the mix, unintentionally giving the other women a much-needed target for their discomfort. Mercedes embraces Cheryl-Ann’s energy, deftly refocusing it as her cluelessness turns into an unexpected kinship with this family that isn’t her own.

Death, shame and infidelity are heavy topics. Thankfully, Murray has aced the art of storytelling, and she peppers her action with moments of humor and heartfelt observations.

The onstage spirit was contagious. It’s a treat to be in a theater when the entire audience is so engaged, with bursts of laughter, oohs of recognition, sighs of relief, and one collective gasp at a particularly misplaced observation by one character. By the time the play ends, we’re so invested in these characters that we can’t wait to turn the page, eager to find out what happens next.

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Irish Classical Theatre Company’s North American premiere of “The Loved Ones” continues in the Andrews Theatre, through March 2. Shows are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $48; $18 for students and veterans, at irishclassical.com. (Saturday evening performances are pay-what-you-will at the box office the day of show, based on availability.)

ALSO: Playwright Erica Murray will be in Buffalo for a special Speaker Series event on March 2, beginning at 1:30 p.m. before the afternoon matinee, with a talk-back after the show followed by a reception.

FOR MORE: If you would like to know more about this show, let me recommend that you read the review by Anthony Chase, Buffalo’s premier theater writer and a friend. It is a textbook example of how to do it, something we should all strive for

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