Affection and regret suffuse Brian Friel’s award-winning 1990 memory play, where the lives of five unmarried sisters in rural County Donegal represent the changing world of 1936. It’s given a lovingly detailed revival here at the National – where the original production transferred from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre – by director Josie Rourke, with a splendid ensemble cast including Justine Mitchell, Derry Girls’ Siobhán McSweeney and compelling newcomer Alison Oliver.
True, 30-plus years on, the script’s juxtaposition of pagan liberation and austere repression in Ireland and the wider world feels slightly overdone. Though Robert Jones’s costumes are terrific, his prettified set unhelpfully recalls The Wizard of Oz. But otherwise, this remains a powerfully moving evocation of time, place and atmosphere.
