Dolly West's Kitchen
by Frank McGuiness
Tuesday 17th February- Saturday 21stst February
Tuesday 24th February - Saturday 28th February 2009
Performances start 19:45
The original production of this play transferred from the Abbey Theatre, Dublin to London’s Old Vic in 2000 with rave reviews.
The play is set in Buncrana, County Donegal just across the border with Northern Ireland between 1943 and 1945 – the last two years of what the Irish called The Emergency. Ireland is a neutral country and yet the army is on full alert, fearing a possible invasion by the British.
Frank McGuinness has given us a play with nostalgia for a time when the kitchen was the centre of family life; when people would sit round the table and talk to each other. However, this family is not without its problems. Dolly West (MANDY HUMPHREY) is the most adventurous and worldly-wise daughter having spent several years in Italy before the war. Her sister Esther (JOY ANDREWS) is in an unhappy marriage with her kind but dull husband (ADRIAN BAILEY). Younger brother Justin (TOM ROBINSON) is full of anger and resentment and is fiercely nationalistic.
Things get shaken up when visiting allied soldiers arrive, exciting the feisty orphaned kitchen maid Anna (JO PICKERING). British army Captain, and one-time lover of Dolly, Alec Redding (KEVIN DAY) arrives alone and with his own conflicting past while the West’s incorrigible and tipple-loving matriarch Rima (JOY MATTHEWS) invites two handsome American GIs into the home with her own unspoken agenda. Marco Delavicario (PAUL SIMMONDS) is brazenly open about his homosexuality while Jamie O’Brien (MATT HORAN) sets his sights on Esther.
The central theme of the play is that people and countries cannot be neutral; commitment is what makes life dangerous and painful but also, ultimately, worth living. However, this is also a play rich in humour, ripe language and crackling wit.
I have been most fortunate in assembling a wonderful cast of strong and experienced actors and an excellent stage management team led by Dorothy Galley. Please don’t miss your place at Dolly West’s kitchen table. You are in for a treat.
