It was Leo Tolstoy who penned the words: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Conor McPherson embodies that sentiment in his new play The Brightening Air, a quiet family drama that had its world premiere at The Old Vic this week.
Set in a dilapidated farmhouse, the play slowly reveals the frustrations and disappointments of the characters. As McPherson says in the program notes, the play “encapsulates that moment where dreams meet reality and our most important illusions fade away”.
And fade away they do, as each character confronts their demons and tries to do their best with the hand fate has dealt them.
The play is set in rural 1980s Ireland, and it’s not a happy place. The personal issues are compounded by the external ones and the family home becomes more than merely a building. It’s about hopes and dreams, the aspirations we once held and the realities we now face. And being Irish, there’s also an element of myth and magic, of fairies and the unseen.
Siblings Billie (Rosie Sheehy) and Stephen (Brian Gleeson) manage the farm, although Billie has a tendency to leave the chickens wandering about. There’s also Lydia, played with real feeling by Hannah Morrish, the estranged wife of their older brother Dermot, who is desperate to regain his affection.
The pace ramps up a little when Dermot makes his entrance, a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a young woman on his arm. Chris O’Dowd is perfect as the swaggering, self-important Dermot, flaunting girlfriend Freya in front of the wife who still loves him. We’ve all met men like Dermot and we hope he’s going to get his comeuppance.
Some additional characters fill out the stage and offer some light relief. There’s Seán McGinley as Pierre, a defrocked priest who is losing his sight and Derbhle Crotty as his bossy housekeeper, Elizabeth. Farm worker Brendan (Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty) only has eyes for Billie, but she doesn’t seem to notice the attention, caught up in her own interior world.
The clever design and lighting, by Rae Smith and Mark Henderson respectively, create a kind of misty, otherworldly backdrop for the all-too prosaic detail of the play. It’s a gloomy glow that fills the brightening air. The furniture is big and old and heavy, and makes an earthly contrast to some of the more ethereal themes.
The Brightening Air is a play with lots to say, but sadly it seems to wander off into the sunset without ever fulfilling its promise. The intimate family drama could be tender and touching, but it all becomes a little tiring. This is absolutely no fault of the cast who are fully in the moment. It’s more about the pacing and structure and direction, here by its writer Conor McPherson.
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A different pair of hands may have moulded this into a more rewarding and illuminating play. The pacing is uneven and it feels like there’s an identity crisis between the comedy, embodied so smoothly by O’Dowd and McGinley, and the suffocating tensions of their family and situation.
The Brightening Air feels like a great work in the making, the telling of a timeless and eternal story; it just needs a little more focus to sustain us through the journey.
The Brightening Air, Old Vic, London
Writer and Director: Conor McPherson
Set and Costume: Rae Smith
Lighting: Mark Henderson
Sound: Gregory Clarke
Movement and Intimacy: Lucy Hind
Voice: Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth, Tess Dignan
Dialect: Danièle Lydon
Fights: Kate Waters
Associate DirectorL Anastasia Osei-Kuffour
Associate Set: Niall McKeever
Casting: Serena Hill CDG
Costumer Supervisor: Poppy Hall
Wigs, Hair and Make-Up Supervisor: Kim Kasim
Props Supervisor: Fahmida Bakht
Music Associate: Ben McQuigg
Cast: Ella Maria Carmen, Callum Cronin, Derbhle Crotty, Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty, Brian Gleeson, Aisling Kearns, Joseph McCarthy, Seán McGinley, Hannah Morrish, Chris O’Dowd, Rosie Sheehy, Amy Vicary-Smith
The Brightening Air will be performed until 14 June 2025.
