★ ★ ★
The subject of The Troubles in Northern Ireland is a complex and emotional one. To transfer a still raw topic for many into a domestic half-hour drama takes a lot of consideration. The Wait takes place on Christmas Eve, Maura Devlin is putting up a rather pathetic tree and takes a lot of the whiskey (something the audience gets to have a drop of too).
She is grief-stricken, all but one of her sons and her husband have been killed in the conflict, yet she still believes in the cause against The British. Her son returns home from work, hobbling from a kneecapping, yet he has had a call. Maura isn’t daft, she knows her son is still involved, but she can’t bring herself to say that she’d rather have her son stay than have another body to bury.
The Wait is well written and well acted, but for all its brilliance it is let down by some dodgy accents, something the New York Theater Collective behind the show may think to do without in future productions, I feel we could accept them as characters with a touch of the brogue rather than an exaggerated and inconsistent accent.
Once you accept that the accents are off, there is still so much to get from the piece. The actors rotate their parts and Bre Tomey and Eamon Yates gave very committed performances. I felt so much for this tragic mother and son, and reminded me of the deep scars that conflicts leave on families.
