The Home Place

BRIAN FRIEL

The Home Place

To Gary McKeone

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

First Performance

Characters

Set

Act One

Act Two

Appendix

About the Author

By the Same Author

Copyright

First Performance

The Home Place was first performed at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, on 1 February 2005, with the following cast:

Christopher Gore Tom Courtenay

Margaret O’Donnell Derbhle Crotty

Dr Richard Gore Nick Dunning

Con Doherty Adam Fergus

Johnny MacLoone Michael Judd

Perkins Pat Kinevane

Mary Sweeney Brenda Larby

Sally Cavanagh Laura Jane Laughlin

Clement O’Donnell Barry McGovern

David Gore Hugh O’Conor

Tommy Boyle Bill Ó Cléirigh / Kenneth McDonnell

Maisie McLaughlin Leanna Duke / Ciara Lyons

Director Adrian Noble

Set and Costume Designer Peter McKintosh

Lighting Designer Paul Pyant

Characters

Margaret O’Donnell

Con Doherty

Sally Cavanagh

Johnny MacLoone

Christopher Gore

David Gore

Dr Richard Gore

Perkins

Clement O’Donnell

Mary Sweeney

Tommy Boyle

Maisie McLaughlin

THE HOME PLACE

Set

Most of the action takes place on the unkempt lawn in front of The Lodge, the home of Christopher Gore and his son David. The only house interior we see is the breakfast room, at a right angle to stage right. The French windows in this room open onto the lawn. The house is approached by an (unseen) avenue off right. A crescent of trees encloses the entire house and lawn; it seems to press in on them. This meniscus is most dense downstage left (left and right from the point of view of the audience).

Time

Summer 1878

Place

Ballybeg, County Donegal, Ireland

Act One

An early afternoon in late August. The sun is shining. The countryside is still.

Margaret enters right. She is in her early thirties, a handsome woman of intelligence and quiet conviction.

She has been to the clothes ine off right and carries a large laundry basket. She empties the clothes onto the lawn and begins separating the garments.

Suddenly, in the far distance, a school choir begins singing Thomas Moore’s ‘Oft in the Stilly Night’. The music, at first scarcely audible, then slowly increasing in volume, is in opulent three-part harmony. The ethereal, sophisticated singing in this unlikely setting is wondrous.

The moment she becomes aware of the singing, Margaret stands motionless, enraptured. Then she is drawn as if mesmerised to the edge of the lawn, shields her eyes from the sun and looks down at the distant school stage right, the source of the music.

She stands there for two full verses, absorbing the music, listening with her whole being, now and then silently mouthing the words of the song.

At the end of the first verse, Con Doherty emerges suddenly and very briefly from the thicket left. He is in his mid-twenties: lean, keen features. He is soft-spoken and very controlled. Everything he says and does is considered. The moment he sees Margaret he melts back into the thicket.