A tale of three Irelands - Brona Crehan’s new play ‘Pillow on the Staircase’

Cahir O'Doherty speaks with Dublin native Brona Crehan's latest work

In the play Crehan does not – yet – address what happened to the child of her father’s first relationship. It’s understandable when there’s already so much to unpack in relation to her family’s surprise. 

“This play is true, it’s topical and it looks at the way that events that happened years ago can resonate years later. But it’s the truth told from three characters different perspectives, so what is the real truth, you know?

“Somewhere in there what really did happen is contained, but a lot of it is embroidered and colored by the three characters and me. I’m writing as I think it may have played out. It’s a good rendition of the times.”

From her mother’s generation in the 1960s to Crehan’s own in the 1980s there was a huge social change.

“I look at the change in my mother through the years and I compare it with my own. I left Dublin in the early 1980s. I think there was a huge gulf between my mother’s generation to my own,” Crehan says.

To have grown up in the gulf connecting the two eras in Ireland, having witnessed how wide the gulf actually was between what was said and what was actually happening, makes Crehan the ideal truth teller. 

For tickets for the two upcoming performances on January 19 and 20 at the Beal Bocht Café, visit poormouththeatre.blogspot.com.

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Nster.com