The Veil: A Book with a Nice cover

I entered the Nation Theatre filled with energy and anticipating Conor McPherson’s play, The Veil, which tells us the haunting story of a Irish aristocratic household in crisis. Although I found the play as an interesting metaphor for contemporary social and economic issues I overall was disappointed with the play. I found it drawn out, wordy, and inconsistent. 

 

Because the play dips into various elements of ghost stories, class issues, and love stories I felt it was crowd. The play was also a strange mixture of elements from many genres. The play is a historical metaphor one scene and a ghost story the next.

The play however is a very aesthetic production. They spared no expense on the setting or dress, everything onstage item was marvelous. The house setting itself became a important character in the play, it determined mood and underpinned emotion throughout the show.Thus if this play was based solely on it’s cover it would be a smashing hit.

Further, the Veil is dominated by themes of tense relationships that exist within class and gender. Lady Lambroke, the landowner who’s household is falling into impoverishment and becoming threatened by unrest in the countryside by famished Irish, is a strong character. She is struggling to maintain her estate in order and afloat. However, because she is deeply concerned with maintaining the tradition of her family’s heritage and family home, when faced with the future, a character like her has no idea how to respond. The characters of the play cannot be themselves because of who they must pretend to be.

For example, Lady Lambroke is not willing to consider the estate hand because he is of a lower status. Another example is Hannah’s engagement and the importance of the financial transaction of her marriage.Lady Lambroke repeatedly rejects the affection of the head estate keeper. Hannah is a pond in her mother’s attempt to maintain the appearance of the family estate. Reverend Berkeley is a sly and comic priest who has been excommunicated from his congregation. Together Hannah and Berkeley explore the spirits that haunt the creaky Irish home. But the execution of the roaring winds and the shocking bangs seem like cheap gimmicks. And due to the jumbled story lines, the audience quickly begins to loses interest. At the conclusion of the play, a mild clapping response was given. The Veil is the only London production that has left me unsatisfied.

The Veil was a interesting production that attempted to accomplish much but delivered half of what it sought to give. The characters needed be further developed because they were not convincing. The ending leaves a message of lost love and life due to upholding larger social institutions that are crumbling.