Multi award-winning playwright and director Conor McPherson misses the mark with his latest tale of ghostly manifestations, set in Ireland in 1822, in which the aristocratic widowed owner of a country pile has arranged an unwelcome marriage for her daughter in order to salvage the estate.
The characters struggle to engage as they down one decanted drink after another, the underdeveloped plot is a multi-stranded muddle which attempts to incorporate social history, and (an unexpected bang or two apart) the supernatural elements fail to frighten – with a defrocked reverend’s attempt to release a “trapped soul” no more unsettling – or revealing – than a cat straining to retch up a furball.
Thank heavens for a dotty, cane-wielding granny who injects some much needed humour into the disappointingly unconvincing proceedings.
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