Little Gem

Little Gem
By Elaine Murphy. The Mount Players. Directed by Richard Keown. Mountview Theatre – Macedon. 24 February - 11 March, 2017

Elaine Murphy’s writing is full of humanity.  This play is about the lives of three working class Dublin women.  They are all ‘doing it hard’ in their own particular way and according to the social mores of their own particular eras.

Basically, Little Gem is three women telling their stories to the audience in rotating sequence.  We get to hear about things, ‘warts and all’ and often personal things that normally wouldn’t be told to strangers.  It is a marvelously funny and deeply moving work that unifies the audience with its humour and openheartedness. 

For those who like a good narrative with a happy ending, Elaine Murphy’s writing weaves the best possible, most satisfying outcomes for her appealing protagonists.

The evening opens with Amber (Marian Griffin), a young woman clubbing rather recklessly, with a what seems to be a particularly selfish self-interested young man, who appears to be her unyielding love interest.  This relationship appears to have an unsatisfying casual edge that suggests Amber, although cheerful and self-righteous, is somewhat masochistic.

Then we hear from Lorraine (Sonja Prater), a more mature woman with a wicked sense of humour, who is having some difficulties at work and melts down in the HR office to be set on a redeeming course of getting counseling.  Lorraine learns to take better care of herself and life looks up.

Karen Hunt then similarly addresses us as the character Kaye.  Ms. Hunt truly shines in this role with its frank and fabulously comic treaties on the sexuality of an over 60s woman. With considerable skill, she also brings her audience with her on an emotional rollercoaster.

The acting is uniformly excellent and all actors’ shine in what is a very demanding staging.  In the telling of their characters’ stories they credibly reenact scenarios whilst remaining comfortably and convincingly in character and intimately connecting with their audience.  This suggests that Richard Keown’s direction is of a high caliber and that he is capable of working with and guiding actors with considerable sensitivity. 

The actors’ use of accent is very successful.  Perhaps this could be due to the fact that Marion Griffin originated from Ireland.

I think I would have liked a bit more consistency in the timing of the projection of the slides used to describe the places being talked about.  Although with such excellent acting I generally forgot to really notice the images, except with the one glaring exception of Kaye’s sitting room.  Jarringly this photo is of a much more affluent home than Kaye would be living in.  The image conveys comfort but a very middle class comfort – a surprising anomaly.

A really great production – if there are any tickets left and it is not to far away to get to don’t miss this one.

Suzanne Sandow

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