The Information on: `Our Father'

What Is It?

Edna O'Brien's Our Father is set during a family reunion in Seventies rural Ireland which inevitably sparks recriminations and revelations.

Who's In It?

There are some fine performances, particularly from David Troughton as the monstrous leading character, Stella McCusker as the long- suffering Lil and Eleanor Methven as Helen.

What They Say About It

"It's reasonable to expect a tyrannous, maybe alcoholic father; a mother who's stoical, possibly religious; grown-up children, each resenting their return; and a row about land, perhaps. O'Brien obliges, and then some," Maeve Walsh, Independent on Sunday.

"The play is firmly constructed and full of emotional meat. Much of the time it stays only one step ahead of cliche, but you feel that the cliches are those of real life," John Gross, The Sunday Telegraph.

"[a] troubling, engrossing play," Benedict Nightingale, The Times.

"If it were less hysterical and formulaic, Edna O'Brien's dysfunctional family saga might be affecting. If it were more knowing, it could be an hilarious pastiche. As it is, Our Father is an unintentionally laughable disaster, which plunders every paddywacking cliche in the Emerald Isle's bran tub of blarney," Nick Curtis, Evening Standard

Where You Can See It

Our Father is at the Almeida Theatre, London N1 (0171-359 4404) to 23 Dec