Review: THE 4TH COUNTRY, Park Theatre

This review contains spoilers.

Irish politics is, usually, abundant with stereotypes according to British theatre. From gun-toting IRA members to peasants desperately fighting for the right to retain their mother tongue, it's easy to get carried away with whiskey and a jolly dance. But there aren't be any leprechauns or Riverdance in The 4th Country, the cast reassure us. Kate Reid's piece, first seen at VAULT Festival in 2020, is a dark, dark play that shines a light on the historical trauma of Northern Irish people.

Reality turns into drama and then twists onto itself again, becoming a vivid and uncompromisingly political in this gem of a play. It's 2019 and family connections to Bloody Sunday threaten to destroy Niamh (Rachael Rooney) and Conor's (Cormac Elliott) lives in Derry-Londonderry. Directed by Gabriella Bird, the show is unapologetic in its campaign. From the derivation of the double-barrelled name of the town to the strain of civil service during the Stormont collapse, the company say it like it is.

Conor swings between disgust and fury when he finds out that Anna (Aoife Kennan), his English lawyer fiancé, is defending Soldier F in the long-awaited trial. A chance encounter at a bus stop between Mel (Reid herself) and Niamh reveals the results of the ban abortion, which would only be lifted a month after the latter was forced to carry a baby until it dies four months into her pregnancy.

The piece is rife with political history and requires the audience to either have at least an idea of Northern Irish affairs or to be willing to go home and do some homework to catch up. The cast deliver palpable urgency with their regular halts to the storyline, breaking the fourth wall and eventually tearing down any pretense of fiction. These meta-theatrical interjections become pressing requests, mainly from Elliott, to do something to change the story.

The 4th Country paints the lifelike picture of a nation that yearns to heal. It's a play about identity and the need to validate a struggle that's been only an afterthought for the English mainland for far too long. Conor snaps when Anna tells him that nobody even knows about Bloody Sunday, saying that's exactly the problem here.

These sharp and perfectly calibrated politics, however, don't rule out comedy. Asking where somebody went to school determines the chances of whether you might know them and becomes somewhat of a running gag, while the aforementioned bus stop scene leans more towards tragicomedy than pure drama, making the production a remarkably entertaining slow burner as a whole.

It's great to see the Park opening the year by staging such a crucial project.

The 4th Country runs at Park Theatre until 5 February.

Photo credit: Mark Douet

To post a comment, you must register and login.