In Our Veins review: A muddled history of a Dublin docker family

Lee Coffey's ambitious new play rushes through a century of the Dublin docklands. Photo: Pat Redmond 

Abbey Theatre (Peacock Stage), Dublin

Apr 12-20

★ ★ ★

In this era of sheeny high-tech companies and start-ups, the early 20th century landscape of Dublin’s docklands can nearly seem unrecognisable. As a centre for freight transport, employing many of the city’s labourers, it was adjacent to a dangerous red light district and the worst slums in Europe.

Rushing through a century of the docks, Lee Coffey’s ambitious new play for Bitter Like a Lemon and the Abbey Theatre, in association with Dublin Port Company, offers its own scabrous take on the city’s transformation. “That’s where Dublin comes from,” someone explains. “Out of the shit and into the world”.

The plot begins in the present day, with a family gathered at the wake of their grandfather Patrick. Esther (Catherine Byrne), frustrated with her ingenuous grandchildren, reveals that her husband had been born to Anne, a Monto streetwalker. 

From there we travel back in time, where Lisa Krugel’s street set, timeless in Georgian design, is often shrouded in ghostly fog. Amelia Stewart’s young Anne is given shelter by a brothel madam. She starts to learn the secrets of the trade from a fearless co-worker, while exchanging chat with a gentlemanly stranger. 

It’s surprising that Coffey has chosen to write his first larger-scale drama with such economy. The cast of six play multiple roles, switching between third-person narration and dialogue. On a smaller stage with fewer actors, that can effectively tell a story. Here details come from so many sources, Anne even has her sentences (“I could leave here …”) finished by her admirer (“... today”). 

The result is an over reliance on exposition, which is a shame. There is some interesting stuff here on the economics and romances of previous generations. We move along to find young Patrick (Jack Mullarkey) jostling among the early-morning crowds of dockers looking for employment. Later, at a bunting-bright wedding, he is given a superb performance of a folk song by Ian Lloyd Anderson. 

Even during moments of violence, director Maisie Lee’s production shows the hits and blows through dance-like movement, as if trying to hold onto a more nostalgically reassuring play.

The most pressing question is: whose story is this? As perception switches from Anne to Patrick, and again to a younger Esther (Aisling O’Mara), this family history begins to feel muddled.

More than likely, it is the story of the docklands, jaggedly told through the lives of several family members. Some will emerge with new reverence for that stretch of the city. For many desperate to stave off poverty, it provided a harbour.