Myra's Story review: Belching and scratching, Myra admirably refuses to apologise for her descent into alcoholism and homelessness
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
★★★☆☆
Two doors up from the Gaiety Theatre a homeless man is stretched out on the footpath, invisible to early-evening theatregoers keen to get to their seats before the curtain call. Inside the ornate Victorian theatre Myra Hennessy holds a similarly supine position on the stage, her head resting on a bag stuffed full of her possessions.
'Look me in the eye,' she says as she harangues an imaginary pedestrian who refuses to engage with her request for spare change. All the eyes are on her, however, as Myra rises to her feet on the cavernous stage to tell her story.
Brian Foster's feted play about this middle-aged woman's descent into alcoholism and homelessness has played in venues across the world since its original version debuted in Foster's hometown of Derry, in 2002. Changed to a Dublin setting before its international launch, at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, it is visiting the Gaiety as part of a tour of Ireland and Britain – although the grandeur and scale of the venue mean it's not a natural choice for a solo show with such a slim visual aspect: a spotlit bench is the only stage dressing.
Still, Fíonna Hewitt-Twamley manages to create a sense of intimacy with the audience even as she fills the auditorium with the impressively flexible instrument of her voice. In Myra's present she speaks with the cracked gravelly drawl of a dry throat slowly lubricated by vodka – her 'medicine' – as the evening unfolds. Slipping back into the past, the young Myra declares herself with the chipper confidence of a young woman in love with life and with her dear Tommy.
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Hewitt-Twamley is also Tina the Tap, Jimmy the Tadpole, Neville the Gnome, Matilda and King Kong, a circus show of grotesque characters who populate life in the city and on the streets, each with their own distinctive accent and intonation. It is a very impressive performance.
The many minor roles that illuminate Myra's character and story add humour to the heartbreak of Foster's play, but they also cheapen it, pulling against both the emotional heft and the potential humanisation of the protagonist, who belches and scratches her way through her 90-minute tale, admirably refusing to apologise for herself or her existence.
The balance between Myra's bawdiness and Foster's intended benevolence is never really resolved, however, and Myra's Story remains more Beano than Shakespeare, to paraphrase Myra herself.
A postshow coda in which Hewitt-Twamley sheds her character altogether and talks about her history with Myra and about the play's fundraising journey brings an added philanthropic context to the event, whose outcomes are inarguable: performances of the work have raised more than €350,000 for homelessness and addiction charities over the years. Considering the warm response of the Dublin audience, it will continue to make a substantial contribution.
Myra's Story is at the
Gaiety Theatre
, Dublin, until Saturday, May 10th
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