Imagine Tom Murphy and Marina Carr were locked in a basement with nothing but a typewriter and a bottle of whiskey, and told they had to complete a 90 minute play by daybreak “or else”. The Remains of Maisie Duggan feels like the result of an encounter of this kind.
Carmel Winters’ play is currently running in the Abbey’s new writing stage, yet much of it feels very old. Set in an obscenely grim farmhouse kitchen, it relates the homecoming of ex-pat Kitty Duggan (Rachel O’Byrne) for her mother’s funeral, only to discover that Maisie (Bríd ní Neachtain) is not dead. She instead just believes herself to be. The journey to understanding Maisie’s condition is paved with buried family grievances: domestic abuse, emotional neglect and excessive cruelty to pet cats.
The play positively oozes with typical Irish plot devices. The set is so grim that the house seems not just unhappy, but uninhabitable. The Duggans’ abusive, disgusting patriarch and idiotic son (John Olohan and Cillian Ó Gairbhí) make a lot of noise but do little to develop the story. There is even a Sacred Heart on the wall, beside an ominous peat stove.
You would be forgiven for forgetting that the setting is supposedly modern day, as the production itself seems to forget at various points. One minute a character is pulling out his iPhone to film something for YouTube, the next a crisis arises out of the old corded phone not being able to call an ambulance. But all these issues aside, when the production clicks it is really exceptional.
The play’s highlights burn far brighter than its faults. Rachel O’Byrne in the lead role is captivating, presenting a refreshing take on the old “prodigal son” stock character. Her performance combines raw anger and hate with vulnerability in such a way as to make her both pitiable and intimidating. Kitty Duggan is a complex and nuanced heroine, one who has been desperately needed on the Irish stage. Unfortunately she is let down at times by a script which doesn’t seem to have had the conviction to let the action pivot on the protagonist’s merit.
The Remains of Maisie Duggan has something exceptional within it, but at the same time the script is its own worst enemy. The ending is a real let-down, an unsatisfying conclusion to something which could have gone so much further. The play holds great potential, but lacks the conviction to carry through.
The Remains of Maisie Duggan is running until October 29th.
