MadeIra - the secrets of sisters
☆☆☆☆
“You wouldn’t call it a brilliant play, Michael J. Harnett’s latest offering, Madeira. A triptych of scenes rather than three acts. Tight, verbal vignettes about two sets of sisters performed by three actresses. Where conversation is action, meaning endless dialogue packed with novelistic exposition delivered by characters sitting around tables. Its story full of clever and clunky touches, including a last minute sting in the tail and a shopping list of contrivances. So no, not a brilliant play. But Madeira can still knock your socks off. Its trio of stars, under Vinnie McCabe’s assured direction, elevating Madeira into something truly touching and tender. All its stars shining, with one going full supernova. A Dublin saunter down memory lane, Madeira’s tweeness proves a velvet glove concealing an iron fist. The “yes, I remember it well” tempered by “but I wish it might have been otherwise.” Recalling when daughters were mandated to look after their parents into their old age. Women to cater to the whims of their families, especially the men. A time when pregnancy out of wedlock meant salvation via a shotgun wedding so the bad girl could maintain her good reputation. That, or damnation in the shame and guilt of a Magdalene Laundry. A time when women were expected to sacrifice their lives in the service of others. Some say little's changed.
Like Betty. A dowdy woman with a pressing secret. The sister who stayed at home with an ailing parent whilst glamorous sister Angela pursued a life in fashion. The two aging spinsters reunited under the family roof. Betty catering to Angela’s needs, like a bad habit she can’t break. Both reminiscing about Madeira cakes over coffee in Bewley’s, and about what was, what might have been, and what’s coming. Geraldine Plunkett’s steely Angela displaying a shaky exterior hiding her middle class, Protestant insecurity. Harnett playing with tensions between class and religion to highlight what unites rather than what divides us. Angela a foil for Deirdre Monaghan’s phenomenal Betty. A woman whose life was unfulfilled, its promise always just around the corner. Whose sisterly love is laced with bitterness, but is herself never bitter. Monaghan’s masterclass performance a Miss Jean Brodie of thwarted opportunities, timed, paced and delivered to perfection. Only for Monaghan to do it all over again. Doubling up in the second scene as the working class, married and harried, Catholic good girl Lu. A low budget Shirley Valentine also sacrificing her life for others. Challenging her sister, the unrepentant Mona, to take care of their father only to have the appalled Mona hit her with some home truths. Brenda Brooks brilliant as the no nonsense sister insisting you always put on your own mask first as they, too, enjoy a Bewley’s coffee. Monaghan’s transition to self-awareness simply sensational. The chemistry between Brooks and Monaghan enriching every fused moment. Chemistry also informing the final scene between Brooks and Plunkett as more of Harnett’s contrivances bring both together for a final resolution. For those of a certain generation, especially women, Madeira speaks to memories often bittersweet. For those who love theatre, three superb performances make Madeira a memorable experience. It’s not to diminish Brooks and Plunkett to say Monaghan is exceptional. It just a fact. Turning in not one, but two richly detailed, beautifully pitched, sensitively portrayed, tour de force performances. Worth the admittance price alone.
-Chris O’Rourke, The Arts Review
“In the first scene, Angela (Geraldine Plunkett) and Betty (Deirdre Monaghan), unmarried, mature sisters, meet to have a cup of tea and some cake in a cafe which retains the air of old decency as there is still a waiter (James Brunty) to serve them. There is a gentility about the place. Their mother used to like its Madeira cake. They have a conversation which is both revelatory and frank, as it contains unsettling information. The second scene is in the same cafe sometime later on the same day, where Lu (Deirdre Monaghan) and Mona (Brenda Brooks), another couple of sisters, have a chat having escaped from their less than domestically competent families. Their mother used to clean for Angela’s family in the days long gone. The third scene takes place in that same house, where the two sisters are still living, with shades of old decency. The set initially consists of a circular cafe table, a couple of bentwood chairs and as a backdrop; an elaborately carved wooden screen.
For the third scene, it transforms itself with small adjustments to the study in Angela and Betty’s house. The conversations between Angela and Betty make references to a more genteel Dublin past where dances took place in the Gresham Hotel and the demarcations between Protestants and Catholics were more clearly defined. Lu and Mona’s conversations are more earthy and the language is more robust. There is in their conversation little hankering for the past and what there is of a world where outward appearances were what mattered. The third scene where Mona visits Angela shows that even if their paths in life have been very different Angela and Mona have much in common. This is a reflective probe into the two very different Dublin worlds of a couple of sisters even though they lived in the same vicinity. It allows you to reflect on the little and not-so-little things which are important in a person’s life, some of which leave an indelible mark. It is a gentle evening of theatre which makes its points quietly and without histrionics.”
-Frank L, No More Workhorse
Dublin Touring Theatre’s play Madeira - The Secrets of Sisters, reunites the artistic collaboration which made a huge success of The Cloudspotter. In place of Callum Maxwell, however, this time renowned actress Geraldine Plunkett joins the cast. Set and costume designer, Marie Tierney, invokes the elegant milieu of Bewleys Café where we’re introduced to genteel spinsters Betty and Angela having tea. The former is bristly and chides her bewildered sister as “never (having been) very good at listening” or “never (having been) very good around the house”. Betty is embittered by having had to look “after Mummy” when “the maid was gone after the business failed”, while her fashionista sibling was off “buying fabrics and travelling the world”. It’s a measure of Deirdre Monaghan’s talent and the textured portrayal of her character that despite Betty’s grumbling persona, we like her and feel pity towards her situation. Plunkett is succinct as the beautifully groomed and well-bred but kindly Angela.
In one of the ties that bind them, after Betty and Angela have left for home “to start writing things down”, another set of sisters occupy the café table they’ve vacated. In contrast to the quiet refinement of the previous occupants, Lu and Mona share an irreverent and bawdy wit. The latter is a mother of twins and separated from Martin who was “the spit of the aul fella” while Lu is a grandmother to Taylor Marie and a dissatisfied wife to pigeon keeper Tommy. Brenda Brooks is lively and spirited in the role of Mona. Unlike Betty, she won’t have her father’s care foisted upon her. Mona doesn’t tolerate Tommy’s treatment of Lu and convinces her older sister to join her on a holiday to Spain. In her second turn of the evening, Monaghan plays the part of a tired and harassed Lu, with her poignant backstory, to perfection. Having recently bumped into each other after a distance of years, the final scene sees Mona visit with Angela in the study of her beautiful Victorian Villa on North Circular Road. They reminisce of times past when Mona’s mother worked as a cleaner for Angela’s family. Sisters Lu and Betty are referenced in laughter and sadness respectively. Alone at her desk, heart-sick but hopeful for the future, Plunkett as Angela skillfully closes the show on a humorous note.
Brooks, Monaghan and Plunkett are outstanding. Jamie Brunty is a happy addition as a waiter in the café. The appearance of the stage with sepia tinted photographs and impeccably accrued set pieces creates just the right ambiance. Music by Daniel Soro and Liam Lonergan is a suitably evocative accompaniment to proceedings. However, although Michael J.Hartnett is a prizewinning playwright with a commendable list of credits to his name, Madeira feels unpolished. Dialogue is difficult to write and to be fair this play is all discourse and no action, but it’s hard to imagine someone saying “in the glow of the electric fire” during the course of normal conversation, for example. Vinnie McCabe’s direction for the production is excellent other than the decision to have Monaghan play the parts of both Betty and Lu. While the actress is superb in her roles, and although likely done for practical reasons, it results in confusion for the audience. Given the now obvious physical likeness between Betty and Lu, the fact that Lu’s mother was in the employ of Betty’s father who enjoyed “his decanters of whisky” and “his club on Stephens Green”, there is the suggestion of a stronger connection between the two sets of sister’s which goes unfulfilled. In terms of dramatic effect, I wonder if the final scene would have had more impact if Betty was to have just hinted at her predicament rather than reveal it entirely during the first scene.
Isn’t it also a cliché to characterise Lu and Mona as trainer wearing, working class Catholics, pregnant out of wedlock, married to good-for-nothing husbands, with names like ‘Taylor Marie’ for their children and drug dealing in the family, whose mother was a cleaner for the wealthy Protestants in “the big house” where the “maids came up from the country” and ‘Papa’ puffed on his pipe? Instead of going home after their coffee as Betty and Angela do, they go to a pub, “Let’s get out of here, let’s get a drink”. But then, perhaps the same stereotypes are used over and over again because they are perceived to be true? Despite the few considerations above, this was an enjoyable 65 minutes. To have three actresses of this calibre together on stage is a rare treat. The name of the play stems from the fact that the mother of each set of sisters liked to order madeira cake along with their tea or coffee in Bewley’s Café and while you might not find these particular refreshments at the Viking Theatre, you’re welcome to imbibe a tipple from Connolly’s Pub downstairs throughout the show.
- Louise Tallon, The Reviewers Hub