Sisters in focus in ‘Helen and I’

Review by Judy Murphy

Even the most mature adults revert to childhood behaviour when they hook up with siblings, slotting into their traditional roles in the family unit and sparking off each other in a way that only siblings can.

That’s the view held by psychologists and behavioural scientists and it’s one that’s explored in Helen and I, the first full-length stage play from Corofin writer Meadhbh McHugh, currently running at Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre.

Sisters Helen and Lynn return to their childhood home to care for their dying father. Over a few days, old wounds open and a healing of sorts is achieved, as they spark off each other, and off Helen’s daughter Evvy and Lynn’s husband Tony.

Lynn’s ruminations as she waits for Helen to arrive, set the scene for what’s to follow. Fixing her very heavily applied make-up, she holds an imaginary conversation with her older sister, making excuses for her love of cosmetics and her sudden change of career. This preparation for their encounter signals an unequal relationship between the two – and there is. But of course, all is not as it seems and that’s what McHugh examines in this play.

Director Annabelle Comyn makes her Druid debut with a terrific cast including Cathy Belton and Rebecca O’Mara as Helen and Lynn, Paul Hickey as Tony and Seána O Hanlon as Evvy – all except Belton are new to Druid.

Aedín Cosgrove’s spare but clever set includes relics of the women’s childhood – an old Pony annual from 1997 and a tattered copy of Jackie are among the items on display before the action proper begins. The sisters arrive, carrying a variety of provisions to last a week – the period that their father is expected to survive.

Apart from Evvy and Tony, they have no other visitors and no contact with the outside world. Strange as this seems, it allows the hothouse atmosphere to become more intense as family secrets spill out and truths finally emerge – the claustrophobic atmosphere calls to mind Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.

A new seating arrangement in the tiny theatre offers the audience an almost voyeuristic view, while Comyn’s decision to play the piece on the round –  a rectangle, really – means that people miss some expressions and encounters, but it makes for a really intimate experience.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.