EDWARD BONDS The Sea, a wry blend of satire and farce stands up well some 20 years after its first outing. Certainly it provides an excellent vehicle for this year's diploma graduation class of the Samuel Beckett Centre. Its 14 roles are filled with an impressive display of individual and ensemble acting, in a production that gets to the heart of a deceptively complex play.
Set on the east coast of England in 1907, it opens with a storm at sea and a drowning, and then moves to mannered comedy. Mrs Raft, the local aristocrat, is intimidating Hatch, the draper, and bullying her meek companion, Mrs The house social snobbery writ large. Then farce Hatch believes that creatures from outer space have invaded the neighbourhood and has gathered a few dimwits to counter their depredations.
More comedy follows, such as a hilarious drawing room exploration of Orpheus and Eurydice with vicar and assembled ladies. It turns darker when Hatch becomes crazy and threatening, and the narrative increasingly interleaves reflective probes into death and life with the silliness. The satisfying mix generates thought as it entertains.
Director Caroline FitzGeraId, with the benefit of Chisato Yoshimi's evocative set design, gets the best from her talented cast. Sile Nic Chonaonaigh's Mrs Rafi is a gem, a study in some depth Laura Heaths, as the twittering companion, is a joy, Ciaran Kenny moves well from eccentricity to lunacy as Hatch and Fiona Glascott brings clear quality to Rose, a young girl at a kind of crossroad. Jarlath Rice and Kevin Hely are also most persuasive in their roles.
There is a nice period feel about it all, of long dresses and hats, moustaches and lost gallantries. The professional support means that this production has no need of the heightened tolerance one brings to fledgling outings. It is a complete and absorbing entertainment.
