Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty (Brendan), Seán McGinley (Pierre), Derbhle Crotty (Elizabeth), Hannah Morrish (Lydia) and Chris O'Dowd (Dermot) in The Brightening Air at The Old Vic (2025). Photo by Manuel HarlanThe Old Vic’s dimmed stage is adorned with a gossamer gauze as two figures lay a table in preparation for a gathering. Lydia (Hannah Morrish) prompts infrequently as Billie (Rosie Sheehy) gabbles drolly through a train route which encompasses Limerick and Istanbul. She gently reveals for us, her position on the spectrum as she focuses blithely on paint hues and chimpanzees. Like silently sinking depth charges, her nonchalant observational insights periodically detonate the play. She is McPherson’s simplest yet most complex character in a production littered with misfits and damaged individuals struggling to get through life.
Billie and brother Stephen (Brian Gleeson) endure a routine country existence of cows, chickens and poverty. Elder bother Dermot (Chris O’Dowd) now a successful businessman, returns to the family home where he brazenly ignores the extent to which he is resented. His long-suffering wife Lydia has to endure the presence of his latest invaluable fling Freya (Aisling Kearns) whom he brings along for support. Meanwhile blind priest Uncle Pierre (Seán McGinley) asserts his rights over the family property through a newly found version of his brother’s Last Will and Testament. He talks of creating a commune for a less dishonest religion and is supported in this endeavour by nephew Dermot, who may or may not have ulterior motives.
As with most Irish dramas, the tinkling brogue at a family gathering, imbues an intrinsic onstage enchantment and lyrical mysticism to proceedings. Here, there’s a joyous understatement in the colourful dabs of humour, tinged as they are with sadness and the profound regret for things either lost, or that never were.
Characters are sexual with one another due to existing familiarities or newly explored yearnings, and even a miracle occurs during (or perhaps because of) a fight which simultaneously becomes the cause of a debilitating injury. It is in this environment that religious symbolism and folkloric mumbo jumbo rub up against each other, blurring the boundaries between the official and unofficial superstitions.
Further members of the strong ensemble cast include Derbhle Crotty as Elizabeth and Eimhin Fitzgerald Doherty as Brendan. Everyone acquits him or herself with stylish understatement and there is a palpably tight-knit cohesion in the troupe which resonates to the far corners of the Old Vic auditorium. Grab a ticket if you are able, but be in no doubt, a West End transfer is as likely as drizzle in Dundalk.
