Greta Garbo Came to Donegal

Shortly after Greta Garbo strides into Sir Matthew Dover's house in Donegal, she refers to herself as a 'great gloomy Swede'. In Frank McGuinness's moving and mannered comedy, the screen icon who claimed 'I want to be alone' is quick to send herself up, but she also fears intimacy, possesses a biting tongue and is disinclined to put herself out for others.

Played by Caroline Lagerfelt, Garbo arrives in Ireland in 1967 and disturbs an already fractious household. While most of the Western world is enjoying sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, Donegal is about to be severely affected by the Troubles brewing in nearby Northern Ireland. In a rather blatant parallel, Matthew, a gay, elderly English painter, employs as servants the Irish family who were forced to sell him their house. The family is headed by Michelle Fairley's unfulfilled Paulie with whom Garbo forms a bond and to whom she is sexually drawn. Paulie is determined that her niece should realise her dream of becoming a doctor despite the determination of her warring parents to keep her at home.

Garbo and Paulie, one high maintenance and the other forthright, are beautifully played and their relationship is the highlight of McGuinness's play. Elsewhere it is often too crammed with incident to be credible. The tolerant reaction to the arrival of Matthew's lover stark naked in the kitchen to deliver a message is surely wishful thinking in '60s Catholic Ireland, and Matthew in particular remains a shadowy character in Daniel Gerroll's uncertain hands. But director Nicolas Kent skilfully steers the unfolding events, while Rob Jones's set, stretching diagonally into the distance, recreates the lonely beauty of the Donegal coastline on stage.