Heaven in Kilkenny

How do two people stay married to each other if one is carrying a secret that undermines the relationship? The complicated answer to this question is explored in Fishamble’s production of Eugene O’Brien’s new play Heaven, which will appear at the Watergate Theatre on October 22. 

A darkly comic yet compassionate piece it features the characters Mal and Mairead, both in their 50s who have been married for a long time, but whose relationship is facing serious problems. It treads a fine line between comedy and conflict, as both characters give their version of their lives  and their dysfunctional relationship in a series of searing monologues that take place over the weekend of a family wedding.

Both characters are engaging, talkative and highly entertaining but their monologues reveal the emptiness at the heart of a relationship grown cold over time. The play received excellent reviews when it ran during the recent Dublin Theatre Festival with the Irish Independent calling it  ‘a sharp and clever look at people doing their best while living a stunted life based on a lie’. 

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Andrew Bennett plays Mal in the play. He observes that the intercut monologues of the piece are ‘a great way of looking at a relationship’ as ‘you just see the different nuances’. 

“If you get just the one witness, then that’s just a very flat story, but if you have two witnesses, you suddenly start to see all the depth there, the contours of what went on … it’s an excellent way of looking at a relationship.” 

It is also a format that allows the audience to feel that they are part of the story. Andrew expands: “You can feel the audience almost enjoying the fact that they’re getting a new view.” Over the play’s nine monologues, he says that the ‘laughs of recognition’ are constant. 

The cast were initially a little surprised at the amount of humour the audience were finding in the  text, but have now adapted. Andrew says, “It’s gone down a storm … the audiences just lapped it up … it’s amazing.”

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He continues, “It’s very funny as well. The first preview we were kind of shocked at how much they laughed because it’s a serious play as well.”

Heaven has had an extremely warm reception from audiences in Dublin and Andrew says, “We’re hoping that we can keep the house up around the country as well.”

Regarding the secret at the heart of the plot that Mal is gay, Andrew recalls thinking of his wife Mairead, “Does she not know that after  … 20 years of marriage ... that Mal is gay?” but then he says he and the rest of Fishamble, had to proceed on the basis that ‘she can’t do’. This ability of people to compartmentalise and ‘put things into a different part of your mind’ is a subject the play explores with compassion. 

The line between humour and tragedy is drawn with empathy by Andrew and his co-star Janet Moran as they embody the struggles and compromises of the human heart. 

The play will transfer to New York, off Broadway after Christmas, for a three month run: which means, that Andrew who has also enjoyed recent acclaim for his performance in the film An Cailín Ciùin, will  be in the US should that film make it to the  shortlist for the Best Film in a Foreign Language category at the Oscars. 

He says he has his ‘fingers crossed’. 

 “It would be great .. such a nice thing for an Irish language film to get an Oscar. It would be kind of amazing.”    

Heaven by Eugen O’Brien is  at the Watergate Theatre on Saturday October 22 at 8pm.