Ciara’s Coming Home

Reviewed by Jeff Green | May 03, 2023

The North Frontenac Little Theatre’s spring production, their second in the cozy confines of their new home at the Soldiers Memorial (Oso) Hall in Sharbot Lake, was the Canadian premier of a play by Arden-based novelist and playwright, Glenys O’Connell.

As Glenys’ husband, Adrian said, when introducing the cast and crew at the end of the final performance of the play on Sunday afternoon (April 30) – more about that later - there was a touring production of the play in Ireland, back in 2019.

Ciara’s Coming Home is about the return of Ciara, the eldest of 4 O’Brian children, to the family farm in rural Ireland, after 8 years in New York.

The action takes place in the kitchen at the farm, a week before Ciara comes home, and on the day she arrives, and the following morning.

The confines of the small stage at the hall are well suited to the subject matter of the play, and the set design by Brian Robertson, Gord Sirrs, Fred Barrett, Christian Kennedy and Donna Larocque, created a down-home backdrop, in a family kitchen, with a sense of the surrounding countryside, while keeping enough room for several actors to move around the stage at any given time.

As the play begins, Mammy O’Brian (Sarah Hale, in a welcome return to the NFLT stage after a number of years) is in a tizzy when she hears that her eldest, and favourite daughter, is coming from New York for a visit.

Daddy O’Brian (Greg Morris) is less impressed, and is not at all keen on repainting and sprucing up the place for Ciara’s return, especially because he is hampered by a debilitating back injury that hurts day and night, except when he gets out on his bicycle to head off to the pub, when he seems to be able to move very well.

Meanwhile, Eleanor, the middle daughter (Hope Andrew), is not happy at all, either about Ciara’s return or Mammy’s efforts to make a good impression on her. Patrick, (Braidey Merrigan) the eldest son, is taken up with his new baby, and the needs of his wife Rosalie (Sloane Putnam). The only one other than Mammy, who is particularly excited about Ciara’s return, is the youngest son Tomas (Nick Conboy) who is more interested in the presents that he hopes Ciara will bring from New York than anything else.

The economy of Glenys O’Connel’s writing, and the ensemble acting, made it very easy for the audience to know where the tensions in the family were, and what to look for in the second half of the play, when Ciara finally made her entrance. It only took a few short scenes to set up the drama that unfolds when Ciara actually comes home.

When Ciara (Emma Fox) arrives, the superiority that the audience had been led to expect, is certainly on display, but it is also clear that it is veneer. Underneath it all, she is scared, and vulnerable.

As everything is revealed, including a former love triangle between Ciara and Eleanor, with unforeseen and tragic consequences, and the truth about Ciara’s real life in New York, the family does come together. In fitting Irish fashion, the play resolves with the promise of a future full of love and constant bickering in the expanding O’Brian homestead.

Sarah Hale and Greg Morris were the only adult actors in the production, and they set the tone for the younger performers, delivering their lines with lots of energy, and urgency at times. Nick Conboy was a fitting foil for his father, using body language and facial expressions as much as anything else to keep the audience entertained. Braidey Merrigan, who played Pauli (Ciara’s husband) as well as Patrick, did well to portray how Patrick had to navigate his complications with the four women in his life, his needy wife and mother, and his competing sisters. Sloane Putnam, as Rosalie, had to maintain her dignity in the face of the strong, domineering O’Brian women.

The relationship between Emma Fox, in her first acting role as the title character Ciara, and Hope Andrew (who also had a lead role in the Red Lamp last fall) was central to the play. The teenagers were playing women in their mid-twenties, at least, and had to step into the murky waters of women who had already suffered some disappointments, had done things they regretted but could not take back, and had never really gotten along since childhood.

The two actors were able to capture much of that reality, making the ultimate resolution believable, and enjoyable for the audience.

As well as directing, Adrian O’Connel performed a set of Irish tunes before the production, and provided the live background music, while the play was running.

And after the production, on the final day at least, he introduced the entire backstage and front of house crew as well as the NFLT executive, to the audience. When he was done, he asked his wife, Glenys, if she had anything to say.

“Oh no, I think you’ve said it all, Adrian” was her pithy response, causing Adrian to smile and the audience to have one more chance to laugh a little.