Anna Burnside reviews the latest from A Play, A Pie and A Pint.
Agnes and James are on a romantic break to Mull.
Or as romantic as it can be when you are in a gloomy, Wi-Fi-free pile with a starchy Victorian housekeeper creeping behind locked doors. And you have just gone through three rounds of IVF and lost one pregnancy.
In case we miss the significance of this, there’s a constantly chiming clock and a lot of tick tock chat when speed is required.
Coping with infertility is a meaty subject, although possibly one that requires a trigger warning. This central theme, when we get to it, is dealt with well. Sarah McCardie is relatable and believable as the hormone-deranged, perimenopausal Agnes, unable to hear her well-meaning husband tell her about another celebrity who has a baby in her late 40s.
Manasa Tagica does a solid job as the younger man trying to support his wife while coming to terms with his own feelings of loss.
It’s the surrounding architecture of the story that is the problem. The tone zigzags wildly between knockabout banter and woo-woo spooky from Mary Gapinski as the mysterious Mrs Caplin.
Then there’s a wildly melodramatic plotline about the former mistress of the house who also struggled to have children as well as a lot of clanky exposition to set it up.
No subject should be off limits for comedy, but this subject called for a more delicate hand and fewer jump scares. Writer Amy Conway’s treatment was as subtle and nuanced as a ghost train.
The Haunting of Agnes Gilfrey is at Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint until June 21, 2025. For further details go to the company website.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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