But what she has to lose we find out is damn near everything – as she finds her limited vision to be overwhelming. The new life it affords her is too much to deal with – driving her into despair and to psychiatric care. It is too much stimulation – too much responsibility – simply too much.

The writing of the play is beautiful – particularly the second act.  But the play asks for storytelling with no interaction and little staging.  This production took that to the extreme and rarely took these three characters out of their three chairs.  For two hours they sat in their chairs and talked to the audience.  They only stood up a handful of times.  It was very tough to stay alert to Act 1.  The actors didn’t have THAT much charisma – the charisma necessary to keep our attention as they just sat and talked for over an hour.  My mind drifted a lot.  I began not to care about the people or the issues involved.  I was being told and not shown.  I kept thinking this would have made a better book than a play.

Act 2 had more of a play to it.  The characters remained seated, but the tragedy of Molley and fall into despair gave us something to witness and something to track as a bit of a journey.  It progressed.  It gave us a climax.  It is common for Irish literature to involve a lot of story telling. Perhaps I just wasn’t patient enough to just sit and listen.