Theatre review: Abbey play provides a gentle reintroduction to live theatre 

Una McKevitt’s family drama allowed for a small audience to return to the national theatre 
Theatre review: Abbey play provides a gentle reintroduction to live theatre 

Liz FitzGibbon and Aoibheann McCann in One Good Turn at the Abbey. Picture: Ros Kavanagh

If life followed the script of ads for banks and life insurance, then the autumn years should be ones of new independence and freedom. In Una McKevitt’s new play at the Abbey, they are a time not so much characterised by the empty nest as by a failure to launch of adult children. And not so much full of wholesome activity, but stalked by long-term illness. It’s a time of complications and tension rather than easeful repose.

Daughter Fiona (Liz FitzGibbon) has quit her job in insurance and is back in the family home, looking for direction. Trouble is, she mostly likes “relaxing” and reading books in her room. Her flighty sister Aoife (Aoibheann McCann) has just arrived from London for a wedding, with the news she’s broken up with everyone’s idea of a perfect potential husband.

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