She was called "Miracle Molly" but the miracle became misery for Molly. Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel (Dancing at Lughnasa), is set in contemporary Donegal as a series of monologues. Currently revived at the Irish Repertory Theater, Friel offers three perspectives on sight and seeing, from a blind patient, her surgeon, and her husband.
Forty-year-old Molly Sweeney (Geraldine Hughes), blind since infancy, had not lived an unhappy life. Although her mother was often hospitalized, Molly's father loved her, caring for her himself, teaching her, stimulating her imagination and praising her. She adapted to her blindness and grew up to be a fulfilled, self-confident and quite independent woman with friends, a husband and a successful career as a physiotherapist.
Molly's husband, Frank (Ciaran O'Reilly), is a ne'er do well charmer who loves his wife but cannot commit to one occupation. He has leapt from interest to another, lately cheese-making and raising rare Iranian goats. Now, dedicated to having Molly's sight restored, Frank brings her to consult Mr. Rice (Jonathan Hogan), a once-famous surgeon who has taken to the bottle after his own wife left him. Mr. Rice takes the case, hoping not only that Molly's sight but his own lost career will be revived. Molly feels no need for the surgery or for regaining her sense of sight, and while the doctor is aware of the possible complications of regaining a lost sense, he and Frank convince Molly to undergo the surgery.
The procedure succeeds. Molly can see, but what and how she sees overwhelms her, challenging her to live in the world of sight. The drama of taking off the bandages brings unexpected problems of adjustment. Is it possible for a lifelong blind person to actually see more clearly without sight?
What Frank and Mr. Rice see is no more clear than what Molly sees with limited sight. Their demands and hopes, urging Molly to improve even as she feels her newfound sight dissipating, unsettle her emotionally. Mr. Rice finally diagnoses that Molly has Blind Sight, where a person can physically see but still believes she is blind. Frank turns to a new interest in Ethiopia, and Molly is confined to a mental institution, no longer sure if what she may or may not see is real or imagined.
Jonathan Hogan, Geraldine Hughes, and Ciaron are convincing as three disparate personalities. O'Reilly as Frank is all energy and optimism and Hogan's Mr. Rice is subdued, compellingly downplaying his character's depression. During their monologues before the surgery, Hughes is persuasive, portraying Molly's calm demeanor, sitting still, eyes closed, chin lifted. In the second act, Molly grows intense, revealing her maddening frustration at losing the enjoyments of her life.
The three characters do not interact. Each tells his story independently and comes to his own conclusion. Their monologues are spoken in the past tense and give a dramatized documentary feeling to the play, especially with James Morgan's setting of three chairs on a bare stage with a backdrop of high windows. Yet Friel's dialogue is picturesque, often poetic.
Director Charlotte Moore keeps a sure eye on the piece, evincing emotion and keeping a focused eye on the pace. The small Irish Repertory Theater is a perfect choice in which to stage this 1996 New York Drama Critics Circle Award winning play.
