síofra, by Natalia Bushnik and Kathleen Welch, is Act II of the ‘Dark Mother Trilogy’, a series of three horror-theatre plays exploring fertility and motherhood through the folklore of three different countries: Romania (SAMCA), Ireland (síofra), and Germany (spilleHOLLE). It’s presented by Spindle Collective at the diminutive Red Sandcastle Theatre. I didn’t see SAMCA but it got good reviews so I was well prepared to give siofra a shot. Frankly I was quite disappointed and I shall attempt to explain why.

It’s set in Ireland in the aftermath of the Great Famine and it’s a take on the well known changeling theme (“siofra” means “changeling” in Irish). Basically a young couple move into a newly built house on Knockma; the Fairy Hill, which is considered unwise. They have a child. Either the baby and the mother are swapped out by the fairies or. they aren’t but the superstitious villagers believe that’s what has happened. It ends badly. And that’s about it. It’s not especially frightening nor especially interesting. I would be intrigued to see what, say, an Angela Carter, could make of the basic premise but there wasn’t one available.

It doesn’t help that the cast of characters are straight out of The Observer Book of Irish Peasants. There’s a wise old doctor, two guys who drink too much, shout and fight, the woman who is both conventionally pious and deeply superstitious and the nosy women who gets lines like “I’m not a one for gossip but she’s no better than she ought to be”. And so on.

The cast; Darius Rathe, Rachel Offer, Justin Otto, Natalia Bushnik, Jeanie Calleja, Eric Woolfe, Claire Haig-Halsall, Susan Wesson and Brian Taylor, do their best but they don’t have much to work with in the text and the miniscule stage space of the Red Sandcastle doesn’t help. There’s some music but it’s composed Irish; sort of folky. Some actual traditional songs might have lifted the thing a bit.

I hate to be this negative about anything, especially when it probably didn’t have much budget to play with, but it’s hard not to make (perhaps invidious) comparisons with Tiger Bride which also starts from a folk tale and does so much more with it.

siofra continues at the Red Sandcastle Theatre until June 28th.

Photo credit: Jack Woolfe