About 20-30 minutes too long, but wow! The detail that has gone into this production is phenomenal. The set is a complete and exquisitely detailed kitchen/family room, with pretty much everything my kitchen has! I wouldn’t be at all surprised if water came out of the taps or the oven had gas! The set really is a truly exceptional and remarkable design feat, with such detail that is so rarely seen, and the lighting compliments it beautifully, moving seamlessly from day to night. It is all very effective and evocative. The detail does, however, bombard your senses at first and leave you feeling a little overwhelmed, so different is it from the stark brick wall of the first scene. However, you soon feel at home and like you are sitting in the kitchen, an invisible participant of the action.
Everyone in this production is so incredibly talented, but Justin Edwards was a pure gem as Tom Kettle, delighting the audience with some of the more unexpected details in this production. Rosalie Craig and Owen McDonnell were utterly brilliant as Caitlin Carney and Quinn Carney, their chemistry sizzling from the very first moment, and your heart really does go out to both of them as the plot unfolds. Although some of the children seemed to struggle at times with the Irish accents, meaning that some lines were a bit muffled or sounded American, they were wonderful and I was very impressed by all of their performances.
It was really nice and quite novel to see an almost fair division of scenes and lines between the different characters, with every single character having their own moment. I can’t think of another show off the top of my head where I have seen this happen, or at least this happen as noticeably.
I was completely absorbed in what was happening but, as I said, this production felt 20-30 minutes too long, and I definitely felt that some scenes could have been edited or condensed to make the running time slightly more comfortable for the audience. And that has nothing to do with people now having shorter attention spans - it has everything to do with theatre seating not being the most comfortable for a 3 hour sitting! That said, the Gielgud is pretty good when it comes to comfort and leg room.
In terms of the political aspect to this play, I don’t think you necessarily need to know about Irish and IRA history to enjoy this production, but it certainly helps in providing some context.
This really is a wonderful production, and I would thoroughly recommend seeing it if you have the chance.