Theatre review: The Match Box
Making its Irish premiere at this year’s Galway Arts Festival, there’s a seductive shape-shifting quality to Frank McGuinness’s monologue play, which is matched by a deft performance from actress Cathy Belton as a grief-stricken mother seeking an elemental justice for the cruel loss of her 12-year-old daughter.
The play starts out deceptively as a naturalistic piece about bereavement, but as it progresses it makes a number of striking transitions in tone. By the end, it has evolved into a Greek tale of justice, revenge, and exile, but also into a quasi-Catholic ghost story about the temptations of evil.
