Two Perspectives on Tom Murphy's "The House"- Abbey Theatre, July 4

The de Burca women of The House

Fion Lau

           Tom Murphy's The House is about a group of emigrants who are returning to Ireland for their annual visit; more specifically, it is about Christy Cavanagh and the way in which he steps in to “save” the one place he has ever considered his home when he discovers that it is going to be sold by the de Burca family. While the play can certainly be read as a study of the different lives emigrants live, and the ways in which they are variously received when they return to visit, one of the most interesting aspects to me was the silence that is so central to forwarding the action of the play.

            Christy wishes to save the de Burca home by purchasing it himself, but does not want to shock Mrs. de Burca by doing so “out of the blue”. As a result, he decides that he ought to first tell one of Mrs. de Burca’s three daughters (Marie, Susanne, and Louise) so that she can step in and tell her mother that she knew Christy was planning on buying the house. The most natural choice among the three daughters ought to be Marie—not only do she and Christy clearly want to be in a relationship with each other, but she also takes care of Mrs. de Burca while her sisters run off and have their own lives. However, Christy and Marie cannot speak to each other—it is unclear exactly why they cannot be together, or even speak to each other, but it is clear from the first moment they come together at the beginning of the play that they cannot do so. This silence prevents Christy from speaking to Marie about his plans to purchase the house, which means he must turn to one of the other sisters. This silence forwards the action of the story, and ultimately leads to the tragedy at the end of the play.

            To me, there are at least two other very significant silences in The House, both regarding the silence that surrounds violence against women. The first of these is the silence around the domestic violence that Louise is a victim of—this becomes clearest at the dinner table as the three sisters and their mother are eating. In this scene, Louise initially has her back to the audience, but we can see that she is wearing a hat at the table, which seems strange until Susanne leaves the table. When Louise removes her hat and turns to face her mother, the audience sees clearly that she has a black eye. The women do not directly address the fact that she has a black eye; Marie simply places Louise’s hat back on her head and tells her to come in to the pharmacy the next morning. In this scene, Louise is hiding the black eye, and so the silence may perhaps seem natural or understandable. However, Louise does not wear a hat for the rest of the play, though she continues to sport a black eye. It is striking to me that not a single person ever acknowledges the violence she is clearly a victim of (except the comment Marie makes about the pharmacy), in spite of the fact that it is very obviously visible to everyone around her. Whether or not Louise will—or even should—leave her husband so that she is safe is never a question. Rather, the attitude seems to be that she deserves whatever has happened to her.

            The second of the silences surrounding violence against women is just as heartbreaking. One character dies as a result of another character’s actions. This latter character explicitly confesses to only one person, and this person’s response is “no, I won’t tell”—in spite of the fact that this knowledge clearly not only has an enormous impact on the lives of these two characters, but would also have an enormous impact on the lives of everyone else in the community as well. It is both fascinating and heartbreaking to see this response of silence, especially considering the relationship between the deceased and the person hearing the confession. Stronger than anything else is the impulse to protect a male character, at the cost of the female characters in the play. In spite of the shock, horror, and grief that is clear on the listener’s face upon hearing the confession, there is no doubt that the silence will be maintained, no threat or force needed.

            These silences are heartbreaking and perhaps horrifying, but they also do make a lot of sense when we consider much of Irish history, literary or otherwise. When we consider the silence surrounding the abuses perpetrated by members of the Catholic church, or the silence about everything related to the Magdalene Laundries—all of which is in very recent history—this theme of silence is not surprising. The latter case is particularly relevant; not only were the victims of the treatment at the Magdalene Laundries women, but these institutions were no secret. People—not just individuals, but Irish society as a whole, really—knew about these institutions, and had a good idea of what happened there, but everyone kept silent about them. The attitude about these institutions seem largely to be similar to the attitude toward the abuses Louise receives—the women deserved what they got. This attitude is depicted strikingly in Peter Mullan’s film The Magdalene Sisters, as the young women at the Magdalene Laundry walk through the streets together and slowly come to realize that everyone else in the streets looks at them with hostility. There is, of course, violence against women everywhere—and silences surrounding this violence—but The House has been a strong reminder of how commonplace it is to remain silent about these issues; the last Magdalene Laundry, for example, closed in 1996, and The House, with its quiet depiction of the silence surrounding violence against women, debuted at the Abbey in 2000.

The House at the Abbey

Juan Garcia

The House by Tom Murphy tells the story Christy (Declan Conlon), an Irish man returning to Ireland for his annual visit after emigrating. It what began as a touching story to save the house of Mrs. de Burca (Eleanor Methven) and her three daughters Marie (Cathy Belton), Louise (Niamh McCann), and Susanne (Catherine Walker), a place he considers home, Christy becomes morally corrupted through the process of his good deed. Along with dealing with moral corruption, Murphy’s play also deals with issues such as emigrating, home, and the idea of belonging.  

The play begins with introducing the characters of Mother and Marie as well as Christy, who stops by their home for a visit. Christy has been abroad in America and in his annual visit, stops by the de Burca’s home, considering it to be a home for himself due to the absence of both his parents during his upbringing. The audience learns of a little of Christy’s past and his connections to the de Burca’s home and it is during this opening scene in which the audience also learns the fate of the physical house itself. The audience begins to see three of the plays main themes occur early on and only builds upon them as the play progresses. Christy is not the only character in this play that has to deal with the idea of what is home, where do I belong, which all ties in with the theme of emigrating.

Although the exact setting of the play is slightly ambiguous, Murphy gives clues to when the play takes place, occurring during the 1950s, when Ireland faced large number of its citizens immigrating to other lands. Incorporating this event that occurred in Irish history allows Murphy to tackle this idea of home and belonging to a much greater depth because it is an issue that is not just limited to Christy’s characters despite the play being his story. Because the de Burca family is losing their home, this idea of home is attributed to them as well affecting the character of Mother and Susanne the most. During the dinner scene, the audience discovers that when the family discovered that they were losing the house, Susanne gives an impassionate speech about not being consulted on the matter, stating that  “even if [she is] away, [she] belong [there]”, that despite being away she still belonged and deserved to have her opinion on the matter taken into account. Although Susanne is not the most likeable character in this play, her feelings about being excluded strike a chord with us, the audience, due to the fact that everyone at one point deals with these feelings of exclusions.

Despite the fact that not all of the characters leave for another country, just leaving home and returning to discover that home no longer exist still affects each character greatly. During the same dinner sequence, in response to Susanne’s outbreak, Mother, who has been largely ignored concerning the situation of the house, finally voices her feelings. Here, we see two important matters that the play touches on, but does not elaborate much on, the plight of women and the bitter truth that this grand dream does not actually exist. Although the play was great the way it was performed, the fact that it included these other ideas along side its main themes, does leave you wanting to see more, especially after discovering of Louise’s abusive marriage. In one of the plays more touching scenes, Mother consults Louise about her marriage and her behavior towards other men, stating that despite understanding why Louise is doing what she is doing, her actions are wrong because she made commitment but emphasizes her understanding. While the play features a brief look into the plight of women in Irish society through the its female characters, this idea is only briefly touched on in favor of the ideas of home and moral corruption, with a greater emphasis on the males of the play and their plights.

Christy’s character, during the course of the play, becomes morally corrupted through his actions in trying to save not just the de Burca’s home, but also his home. The first time the audience ever sees the dark side of Christy’s character is during one of the bar scenes in which he assaults one of the bar mates. While watching, his actions felt as if they came out of the blue but as the play progresses, make sense as we begin to understand how complex this characters is and what he is capable of. Christy tries desperately to save his home, as does Susanne, and during these interactions between them; he “accidentally” kills her. Although his confession to Mrs. de Burca was heart breaking and performed beautifully, it is questionable on his part due to the fact that we have seen Christy be manipulative to not just the de Burca family but also the character of the attorney.

Overall, Murphy’s The House was an excellent play that was wonderfully performed. The performance from each and every single actor was topnotch, particularly Methven and Conlon’s for their final interaction, a scene that truly made the play for me. Alongside with excellent acting, the sets were fantastic and the transitions between each scene and set left me wonderstruck but perhaps the best part of this play was the fact that it was unpredictable. For once, I could not figure out where the story would go next and what would occur which has to do with all of the ideas and themes incorporated into the piece itself. Although problematic because of this, the fact that the idea of home and belonging are at the forefront of the play make The House a play that will most likely continue to be performed for ages due to the fact that this idea spans generations and touches everyone who watches to a certain degree.