Theatre review: Lovers - Everyman, Cork

4/5

The structure of Brian Friel’s first drama in this play of two parts is such that the audience is alerted to a tragedy that is clinically reported by commentators, like a Greek chorus. Ostensibly, Winners is about a teenage couple who have to get married as the girl, Mag, is pregnant.

The loved-up, but often bickering pair, are studying for their exams. Joe takes life more seriously than his scatty girlfriend. As it turns out, they are dealt a cruel hand. However, the nature of their demise is not revealed. They are ‘winners’ in that they never get to live out a mundane domestic life with all the tensions that are already evident in their tempestuous relationship.