The Last Summer

photo from Gate Theater website

Last night, we went and saw The Last Summer, a modern play by Declan Hughes at the Gate Theater. It was supposed to be a sort of coming-of-age story set in 1970s Ireland, with cutaways to present-day. It focused mainly on four boys about to receive the results of their secondary school exams, and their stresses in trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives.

While the play was good (the set design was clever, the costumes were appropriate, and the music was live), there wasn't anything particularly "Irish" or even unique about the story. The "summer before college" story has been done a thousand times before, set in every high school from Los Angeles to Boston to London to Dublin. Side plots were plentiful but not followed up on, and they focused far too much on the romance between two main characters and not nearly enough about the untimely death of another.

All in all, it was a huge disappointment. I would have preferred an Oscar Wilde play, or something else by an older Irish playwright, to that.