The Cordelia Dream

An older Man (no name) is alone at his piano. The room is almost dark and very bare. There’s no bed, no couch, no table, no chair. He’s composing. The doorbell rings. “You.” It’s a young woman = Woman (no name). “I stayed away as long as I could,” she says. He lets her in. She notes the change in his surroundings – no green outside, no birds – and offers wine. He no longer drinks. There’s no kitchen. Various women provide sex, food, coffee.

“You’re going to haunt me…You’re going to die and I’m going to be left with the fallout. I want to sort you out while there’s still breath in my body.” She’s his estranged daughter, the mother of five children he’s never seen, married to a man he’s never met, there because of her dream – of King Lear. They recall the four howls and five “nevers” as Lear carried a dead Cordelia.

Father and daughter are “at” one another, both composers, both pianists. She’s come with love despite a painful history. He’s selfish and unfathomably competitive. “A malignant star said we would be related,” Man comments. They speak of the past, his wife, her mother, siblings, careers. Both have highly lauded careers. Much of the conversation is vicious. She gives up and leaves.

Five years later, he sits with a cigar and glass of champagne dreaming of music, of his daughter as a child. Woman enters. The door was open.  He doesn’t recognize her, or only does in mean flashes. Dementia? Delirium tremens? Man has presented work since. She disparages it. Memories surface and fade. Again, she tries to get emotionally through to him. Again, he battles back. There’s been incredible sacrifice. He either doesn’t comprehend or can’t care.

What would you say to a parent who’s done irreparable damage? Could you forgive? Would battered love remain? How does one live with that kind of conflict? How does one die with it? Playwright Marina Carr has bloodied blood ties with a play about the impossibility of communication with a passionate, insecure ego. Both Man and Woman are credible, if cliché. It’s the pithy dialogue that holds one, however, not plot. Though I understand reticence to use them here, I find lack of character names irritating. This is not a surrealist piece. The play would benefit from editing. Our minds begin to wander.

Both Stephen Brennan and Danielle Ryan are compelling. The actor’s often nonchalant venom is startling. His wandering mind almost visibly halts, turns, sags, backtracks. Ryan’s apt calm in the second part might more effectively show cracks in the first.

Director Joe O’ Bryne creates enough subtle variety in a confined set to keep the play from feeling too static. His actors are watchful and listen.

Nick Ryan’s cinematography, music and Piano by David Downes and splendidly evocative lighting are all excellent.

Irish Repertory Theater in Association with Bonnie Timmerman present
The Cordelia Dream by Marina Carr
Through August 8, 2021
With Stephen Brennan and Danielle Ryan
Directed by Joe O’Bryne

Photos courtesy of the production

Irish Repertory Theater has a full roster of fully staged productions available to stream free, but tax deductible donations are appreciated.

About Alix Cohen (1706 Articles)
Alix Cohen is the recipient of ten New York Press Club Awards for work published on this venue. Her writing history began with poetry, segued into lyrics and took a commercial detour while holding executive positions in product development, merchandising, and design. A cultural sponge, she now turns her diverse personal and professional background to authoring pieces about culture/the arts with particular interest in artists/performers and entrepreneurs. Theater, music, art/design are lifelong areas of study and passion. She is a voting member of Drama Desk and Drama League. Alix’s professional experience in women’s fashion fuels writing in that area. Besides Woman Around Town, the journalist writes for Cabaret Scenes, Broadway World, TheaterLife, and Theater Pizzazz. Additional pieces have been published by The New York Post, The National Observer’s Playground Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, and ifashionnetwork. She lives in Manhattan. Of course.