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The perpetual doom and gloom is a little exhausting in this 1915 St John Ervine play. It’s made all the worse because just when you think things might be getting better for the Ferguson family, suddenly bam! They’ve been knocked for six yet again.
Ervine’s work – revived in England for the first time in more than 90 years at the Finborough Theatre – focuses on the stubbornly religious, old, ailing John Ferguson, who is convinced everything that happens is part of God’s great plan. He prefers to trust resolutely in the Lord’s wisdom, as his family slowly falls apart around him.
But even those that don’t benignly accept their fate get a pretty raw deal in this rural Ulster-set tragedy. Ferguson has conviction that his brother will send money from America to cover their mortgage. When no money arrives, an epic downward spiral begins. John’s daughter Hannah agrees to marry someone she doesn’t love then breaks her word; their family farmhouse is saved then lost; Hannah is sexually abused by their mortgage lender; and much, much more besides.
The twisting and turning plot is almost farcically relentless, though Emma Faulkner’s static production is buoyed by some great performances. As kind old man Ferguson, Ciaran McIntyre is exceptionally endearing and we find ourselves forgiving him for his blind faith, right up until the very end. Veronica Quilligan as mother Ferguson is hard as stale bread and when her latent bitterness finally breaks out, she is completely convincing. Good turns also come from the rest of the cast, who all take on their often contradictory roles with gumption.
Though this plot is occasionally moving, when a nasty lesson is being learnt by an infirm man at the end of his life, it’s hard not to wonder what the point to all that suffering really was.