Published in the Sunday Tribune, July 13, 2008

In the drawing room of a house on Dublin’s Northside, Rita Dunne sits, remembering. How her father mentored her young husband, Willie, early in his political career. How Willie rose fast through the ranks, with her at his side, to become Taoiseach. How their marriage couldn’t weather the strain of political life. And how Willie Dunne, after winning three elections, became embroiled in a financial scandal, unearthed by a tribunal he himself set up…

For Rita, whose life and self-image remain inextricable from the public image of her ex-husband, the prospect of his forced resignation raises the prospect of her finally achieving some “closure” and independence. For their daughter, Aileen, the circumstances of the scandal are sordid and disillusioning, and her relationship with her father is on the brink. For Willie, a strong man in public, but weak in private, it is more difficult to open up to his ex-wife and daughter than it is to address the nation on the tv.

Pat Talbot’s new play carries the mild frisson of being associated with recent public events, and the even milder, voyeuristic thrill of wondering, is this what it was like for Bertie Ahern and family?

These are mild because the play is gentlemanly, and its pleasures are old-fashioned. There is no subtext: everything is spoken, even by the stuttering Willie. (Frank Melia has an affecting awkwardness in the role, but conveys none of the authority or stature that even an embattled Taoiseach must have.) Rita takes us carefully through both the family history and her own emotional state in unaffected, plainspoken narration. (Deirdre Monaghan’s performance is uncomplicated and authentic.) There is gentle comedy, provided mainly by the robust performance of Vanessa Keogh as the spiky daughter. There are straightforward insights in the personal lives of public people.

But the play is hampered by its proximity to history and its close relationship to the external circumstances of living people’s lives. Talbot resists the temptation to judge his Taoiseach – the facts of his financial dealings remain ambiguous – but the result is a lack of information as to what he did or didn’t do, and therefore a lack of real insight into his political motivation. Rita Dunne is presented from the opening narration as strong, straightforward, honest – high praise for a person, but too earnest for a credible dramatic character.

Talbot’s 90-minute script might fair better as a one-hour television drama. The narration is largely unnecessary, and the dialogue has a naturalism, straying into cliché on occasion, that would work better on the box than on stage. This is politics with a sepia tint: unchallenging but, at moments, gently affecting.

At the Civic Theatre, Tallaght