Lovers

7th - 22nd August 2009

By Brian Friel

Directed by Mary Curtin
Designed by Jim Queally
Lighting by Paul Denby
Produced by Michael Murphy
An Everyman Palace Theatre in association with
Proscenium Production

Cast:
Colum Dennehy
Judy Donovan
Ann Dorgan
Eileen Dromey
Cora Fenton
Irene Kelleher
Ian McGuirk
Michael Murphy
 

Read The Irish Times review here
 

To mark Brian Friel's 80th birthday we celebrate the legendary playwright with one of his earliest and most enduring pieces - LOVERS.

Split into two one-act plays entitled 'Winners' and 'Losers', LOVERS is a brilliantly crafted, tender and witty study of love. The two one-act plays are presented as a single play, though they share neither character nor story. The lovers of the first act are a young couple whilst in the second they are well beyond their prime. Together, however, the plays complete each other, observing and commenting on two different types of love.

In Winners, two teenagers struggle with the balance between love and responsibility. A young teenage couple, Joe and Mag, are about to be married. They meet to study for their final exams and, at least as far as Mag is concerned, to plan for their future together. Friel shows us the joys and the fears of this young couple, while at the same time a pair of commentators inform us that all is not as it may seem. The play is filled with moments of humour and sadness, but in the end we are left in no doubt as to why Mag and Joe are indeed Winners.

In Losers, the lovers are older, but their passion, at first, is no less real. Losers finds Andy, a middle-aged working man, courting Hannah, a similarly aged woman living with her power-hungry martyr of a mother. A domestic drama with bite and silver-tongued humour, Losers takes a large swipe at traditional religion and its slavish adherents including Hannah's mother and the old lady's tut-tutting pal Cissy Judy Donovan. Losers is a bold, often hilarious farce with heart-rendering undercurrents, packed full of wit and irony.

Charming, funny, touching and poignant. Brian Friel has brilliantly managed to combine it all in these tender and insightful tales of love.

This brilliantly crafted double bill represents a rich encounter with one of Ireland's most treasured dramatists. Friel is also well known for his plays Philadelphia Here I Come, Dancing at Lughnasa and Translations.

"While Winners is a heartfelt drama about youthful passion, Losers is performed in an over-the-top farcical fashion which works very well."
Irish Examiner

"The use of Cork accents acentuates each comic moment as the cast deliver their lines with panache."
Evening Echo

"this crisp presentation keeps a firm shape in which, despite the hilarity, nothing is overdone by the cast"
The Irish Times

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