Reviews

Theatre - The Hanging Gardens, The Abbey, Dublin

A new play by Frank McGuinness is always an event. The author of such seminal works as The Factory Girls, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme and Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, McGuinness has earned his reputation as one of Ireland’s most outstanding playwrights.

The Hanging Gardens is among his more modest, personal works. Set in the garden of a house in Buncrana, Donegal, the play concerns the coming together of a family of five. The father, Sam (Niall Buggy), is a novelist settling into his dotage, while his wife Jane (Barbara Brennan) labours at the ‘hanging gardens’ of the title: her work as a horticulturist has helped them secure their comfort. One son. Charlie (Declan Conlon), has stayed at home, ostensibly to look after them, while Maurice (Marty Rea), is a philosophy graduate who has returned from travelling the world. Their sister Rachel, meanwhile, is a barrister in Dublin who has become pregnant by an unknown man.