Gabriel Byrne and Geraldine James in 45 Years at Minerva Theatre | Review

I love the work in the main house and I love the work in The Minerva and consider we south-coasters lucky to live with such an astonishing theatre on our doorsteps, so it comes as a genuine shock to me to leave a performance from the summer festival of a new play starring two of the countries finest actors feeling… well. That’s the point. I don’t know what I’m feeling.

45 Years is an adaptation of the Andrew Haigh film by Hannah Patterson. It tells the story of a married couple – Geoff and Kate – approaching their 45th wedding-anniversary when a shadow from his past falls across their lives.

Playing Geoff and Kate are two of the finest actors we currently have working – the wonderful Gabriel Byrne and Geraldine James – and what a joy it is to watch that work. That said, I left the theatre feeling that I’d missed the point – or points – somewhere along the line.

Apart from one moment, when Kate is in the loft of their home and discovers something relating to her husband’s past that eats into her very soul, I was never once drawn into the lives of these two. It’s certainly not because of the performances from Byrne and James who bring a filmic realism to the small space that is The Minerva, aided by the only other actor in the piece – Gillian Bevan as their friend Lena – so I can only believe that the script or the direction are – somehow – lacking.

Subjectively, I found no impetus to the story, no pace, no fire, no passion. Yes, when Kate finds out a truth about (what is potentially – it’s never confirmed) Geoff’s past, it could have had an effect of their life together – but it didn’t. It all happened before they met. Indeed, if it were the truth and reached its logical conclusion, it may have resulted in them never meeting, and so would never have affected her. All a bit hit-and-miss.

I’ve never watched the film – although I will now – and perhaps that will give me a better understanding of the dynamics, beats and thought-processes behind the writing.

I really wanted to care – but just couldn’t.

Until July 11.