The title throws a wild card into the mix in Marina Carr’s play, written in 2009 and receiving its premiere in Andrew Flynn’s production for Decadent Theatre. Who knows what might happen when a character called The Argentinian (Michael Cruz) appears, together with a human-flesh-eating dog. What we can assume is that there will be passionate desire. While the central drama concerns the obsessive extramarital affair between Deb (Maeve Fitzgerald) and Darby (Fionn Ó Loingsigh), theirs is not the only infidelity.
With Deb torn between her patient husband Sam (Mark Huberman) and Darby, the early scenes are awkwardly abrupt, and it takes quite some time for the drama to cohere. Extended scene changes add to the disjointedness, as plush sofas are dismantled in Ciaran Bagnall’s abstract setting. When the Argentinian heart surgeon (Cruz) and Sam’s psychiatrist mother (Bríd Ní Neachtain) get together in a flashback sequence, it looks as if we’re about to tango from the domestic into the absurd, with the deadpan Ní Neachtain taking it all in her stride.
While Deb grapples with the mess she’s creating for Sam and her five children, her father (Daniel Reardon) blames himself for a tragedy he thinks was caused by his own long-distance love affair. This intense confession, made to Darby, gets to the heart of Carr’s preoccupation with the pain of having to choose. As Reardon’s face is luminous with the memory of the woman he loved in secret, he talks about the damage done, the consequences of his actions. Deb, too, thinks that she does not deserve to be happy; no matter what she chooses, there will always be regret and hurt. Even if no gods are coming to punish her, as Darby insists, it is hard to imagine her finding peace of mind. With magnetic central performances, the play’s preoccupation with the meaning of suffering creeps up slowly, then grips.
At An Taibhdhearc, Galway, until 27 July. Galway international arts festival continues until 28 July
