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| Molly Sweeney |
One of my pleasures during this pandemic has been the opportunity to enjoy theatrical productions from literally all around the world. And of the many companies I have come to know and love, one of my most appreciated has been the Irish Repertory Theatre from right here in New York City. For the last several weeks, the Irish Rep has been streaming a festival of its best productions from the last year, produced specifically for the ZOOM platform. And among these was the unexpected gift of Molly Sweeney.
Written by Brian Friel, perhaps best known for his hit show “Dancing at Lughnasa,” and directed by Charlotte Moore, Molly Sweeney is the story of a young woman blind from infancy. Molly has constructed a full life for herself rich in friendships and sensual fulfillment and then comes the fateful entrance into her life of two men with their own agendas.
Convinced that what they are doing is for her best, they have decided that she should have surgery to seek to restore her sight. For her husband Frank, it’s his effort to make her “complete” and for the Doctor, Mr. Rice, an effort to restore his damaged reputation and career. In discussion of the proposed operation, the question is raised, “so what does she have to lose?” As it turns out, quite a lot.
Molly has a full life. She knows her father’s garden like the back of her hand. She knows her way around the streets of her town and her other heightened senses give her a sense of independence. She has a job at a local sports club and many fulfilling relationships. Nevertheless, out of a sense of obligation to her (seemingly) devoted husband, she agrees.
In a profoundly moving scene, on the day of her operation, Molly takes one last walk to enjoy and experience her world as she has known it. Sadly, the operation is only minimally successful. She can sense light and dark and vague images but no clarity. A second operation does little to improve the situation. She increasingly find herself in a perpetual state of limbo, an in between place with no clear vision and the loss of her sensual perception. She slowly retreats into her own solitude and within the year has lost her job and her friends and begins a descent into a madness from which she will not recover. Her husband loses patience and takes his savior complex to Africa while the Doctor consoles himself with the idea that at least now she could see men as “trees walking” as in Mark 8: 22-26.
Molly winds up institutionalized while her “saviors” get on with their own lives. What did she have to lose? Nothing but herself.
The play, based on a true story, is a clear expression of the ableist perspective that it is always the able who know what is best for persons with disabilities, completely missing the fact that quite often persons with disabilities have used their own God-given resources to learn how to navigate their world on their own. Regardless of good intentions, such valuing of one’s own perspective over and against the other’s self understanding will most often result in a form of violence being done to the one being instructed how to live their lives. Perhaps even being fatal.The play serves as a great resource for an important discussion.
Molly Sweeney starring Geraldine Hughes is valuable in opening to a world persons without disabilities do not really understand. There is one more performance on March 2nd at 7 PM. Check here for information (https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/32325?_ga=2.219670940.406887579.1614351578-631720132.1613663229
The text for the play can be found here:
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