My love for “The Veil.” Why people no likey? By Maurissa Harris

“The Veil” is a play that was written by Conor McPherson set in rural Ireland in 1822. The play has been given 4 stars by other critics and has a mixture of mystery, super natural and real world trials. This work of art contained all the elements for a suspenseful and captivating story so my question to the rest of my student critics is “why you no likey?” What’s there not to like about this play with “haunting tale.” The Veil takes the tragic suicide of Hannah’s father that she witnessed when she was a young girl and shows how these unique circumstances has some how given her the ability to hear people who have passed on. What drew me into the story were not only this aspect but also the fact that the whole family could potentially have this gift but instead of embracing it Hannah’s mother shakes it off like it does not even exist. Her denial is what causes the Family Reverend and a friend of the Reverend to try and get Hannah to connect with the “other side” and her to embrace her gift not is afraid of it or pretends like it doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, Hannah’s mother is pushing Hannah into a marriage that she does not want so that her mother can rid herself of the burden of taking care of land that is falling apart and of tenants who hate their family. The play shows that the concept of the poor getting poorer and the rich gets richer is not always accurate because if the poor can not pay their rent to the rich the rich will become less rich and could potentially lose everything. As the family is scraping to get by, we that the staff is also unravelling and the personal torments that the grounds keeper goes through. All of these scenarios are what kept me so in tuned with the play, but what also kept me interested were the random effects that they had in the play. When the thunderous boom went off I was at the edge of my seat and when the little ghost girl walked in the room and ran out I was holding my breath. 

However, out of all the character’s I strangely connected with the writer. His story about leaving his wife and baby for dead, how it ate him up inside and the reason why he stopped loving her—although I am not condoning what he did but—is something that I understand. Looking into the persons eyes that you once saw the whole world in and then one day look at them and can’t see the reason why you fell in love with them anymore says a lot. He was self medicating to take away the pain of not being able to save his child from death and when the medication no longer sufficed, he took his own life. As powerful as the underlying means of this play are my question still remains, “Why people no likey?”