‘For what died the sons of Róisín?,’ Luke Kelly of The Dubliners asked – Róisín being Ireland herself. What about the daughters, asks Aoibh Johnson in her ambitious solo work, written and performed by Johnson with direction from Cahil Clarke.
Addressing both her family history, in which her great-grandmother was confined to a room in her home for nine months as a result of ‘the sickness,’ and the wider treatment of young unwed mothers in Ireland during the previous century is an ambitious ask in a fifty-minute piece but it seems that Johnson has little qualms about the task.
We follow the story of a young girl in the early 1900s as she falls pregnant and finds herself shuttered away by her family to avoid the shame associated with being an unmarried mother. Johnson plays both the young girl and, with the removal of a hair clip, becomes our narrator too. It’s an assured performance as Johnson clearly distinguishes between the two characters.
The text is interspersed with a cappella songs and though they are well performed, it’s not always clear what they add. A version of Declan O’Rourke’s famine lament Buried in the Deep jars slightly as it becomes a forced segue to emigration from Ireland.
While the subject of the play is vital, you feel you know what the outcome of the story will be from the beginning. The result is a lack of tension within a straightforward narrative that offers few surprises, though it does, to a certain degree, heighten the tragedy of the girl’s story – there was only ever one possible outcome for her.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (Good)
The Daughters of Róisín is at Pleasance Courtyard until 25 August 2024
