Cyprus Avenue is a play that swings between being highly humorous, and incredibly violent and disturbing. We follow Eric, Stephen Rea, as he explores his national identity and how far he would go to preserve it in the face of suspicion.
The play starts with an exchange with his psychologist, Bridget, to whom he questions having a black, female doctor. Eric says that he doesn’t mean this with any offence as he hasn’t ever seen one before. This prejudice-like attitude continues when he refers to Christians (who he greatly dislikes) as “Fenians”; he claims that he can call them so because they are. This leaves the audience unsure of how to react, but helps to set the tone for the rest of the play and aides people in understanding his personality.
The central idea of the play emerges when Eric reacts to seeing his granddaughter for the first time, he is shocked that she looks like “Gerry Adams” – a hated figure by Ulster Protestants. His suspicions are ‘confirmed’ when he draws a beard and puts glasses on her to imitate the appearance of Gerry Adams. He surmises that she doesn’t just look like the Sinn Fein leader but is him pretending to be Eric’s granddaughter! This gives rise to suspicion – perhaps there are others who have infiltrated Protestant homes posing as babies. The ludicrosity of the situation is what helps to shape the play and give it humour.
Although currently Eric is steadfast in his dedication to being a Protestant (and disliking Catholics), his daughter doesn’t understand why he doesn’t move on. There was a moment in his life when he did waver in his beliefs. He recounts to his psychologist the night when he stepped into an Irish pub, thinking that people would immediately discovered that he wasn’t in fact Irish but British and kick him out. To his surprise, this didn’t happen and he spent the evening happily engaging with people. He even goes as far to question whether he is actually Irish. Perhaps his actions later are to compensate for this sin.
Despite the fact that the audience knows how the play would end, we are still unprepared for the brutality of it. We learn that Eric has some character flaws but block out the idea that he is capable of such appalling feats due to the humour, albeit with dark undertones, throughout the play.
Stephen Rea’s performance is astounding as he shows us the more comic aspects to the character but also how detrimental suspicion can be especially when you are left to your own thoughts. The play feels like the audience is watching Eric’s inner thoughts and depicts the conflict between the different sides of his personality and what can cause thoughts to ultimately prevail. Bridget’s last words beautifully sum it up: “Every single one of us is a diabolical mess. We walk around being normal but all of us inside are unfathomable and messy.”
On at the Royal Court until March 23rd
A playwright's playwright 