The play is at its best in its lighter moments. It begins in the debris-strewn but homely reception room of the parochial house. Collins, of whom Mrs. Ryan is deeply suspicious. Des and Anna Manahan are excellent in the roles. The dynamics of a long-term but appropriate relationship have been well crafted by Foster and the actors bring their own long experience to their performances.
Des comes across as harmlessly eccentric yet canny.
The actor delivers his lines with practised patience and is always both believable and sympathetic. The play continues to be funny and entertaining as the plot develops throughout the first act. John Hewitt is amusingly officious as the ambitious Collins, whom, we are told, has been cast as Brutus in the local dramatic society's production of Julius Caesar . There is a familiar vibe to a lot of this, not least of all from the recent television series Father Ted , which though admittedly much broader and sillier in its sense of humour also expressed a certain healthy skepticism of the Church's internal politics. The arrival of Fr.