Philadelphia, Here I Come review: Friel's masterpiece still has resonance today
Alex Murphy (Gar Private) and Shane O'Regan (Gar Public), in Philadelphia Here I Come! at Cork Opera House. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
★★★★☆
Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first staged in 1964, Brian Friel’s Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a classic of Irish theatre and a well-judged choice for Cork Opera House’s post-lockdown reawakening, providing a welcome reminder of the playwright’s genius for divining the magic in ordinary life and language.
The Ireland it portrays, where a St Brigid’s Cross hangs on the wall and the rosary is said every evening, may be rapidly receding in the distance but the play’s emotional truths still ring loud and clear.
Gar O’Donnell is preparing to leave his home of Ballybeg to start a new life in America, leaving his widowed father, S.B. and the family shop behind. It is a home, like many, where difficult conversations are avoided and instead platitudes and talk about the weather fill the gap.
The protagonist’s divided self is represented by Gar Public (Shane O’Regan) and Gar Private (Alex Murphy). Gar Public is reserved and uptight, struggling to communicate with his distant father (Seamus O’Rourke). Gar Private swaggers with cheeky insolence, serving as a conduit for Gar Public’s flights of fantasy but also a truth-teller — “to hell with all strong, silent men” he exclaims at one point.
Murphy’s finely-honed comic timing from his role in Young Offenders is utilised well in a production sprinkled with humour. He lights up the stage in the same way he lights up the screen, impeccably assaying an array of accents and characters.
While the play centres on the male inability to communicate, the women — housekeeper Madge, Gar’s aunt Lizzy and erstwhile love Kate — have it hard too, their needs sublimated into servitude, marriage and thwarted motherhood.
Catherine Walsh is excellent as Madge, a Mrs Doyle-esque presence who acts as an emotional sounding board for the men of the house — through her, we discover that Gar’s father too lives with disappointment and regret.
As Gar’s departure hastens, he makes one final but futile heartbreaking attempt to bond with his father.
Producer Patrick Talbot, director Geoff Gould and cast are to be commended for pulling off such a confident and entertaining full-scale production, a poignant and timely reminder of our need for connection and how we often struggle to articulate it.
- Philadelphia, Here I Come! by Brian Friel, at Cork Opera House until Oct 16. corkoperahouse.ie
