Then the family is visited by Hughes’ character of Crow, who soon moves in with them.Ī vast and shape-shifting anthropomorphic presence-a storyteller, a philosopher, and a trickster-the Crow intermittently possesses Dad-more for better than for worse-and this spirit helps the man and his boys gradually work through their bereavement. A storm howls outside, suggesting the devastation within their home. Desolate in the immediate wake of his wife’s sudden death, his anguish magnified by worry about his two young sons, Dad is nearly paralyzed with grief.
The contemporary individual whom Murphy depicts, known as Dad, is a scruffy professor of literature who is writing a treatise on Ted Hughes. For the most part, Walsh’s production is purposefully chaotic. The non-linear text is a complex and writerly collage of memories, emotions, and fanciful happenings. Without such prior knowledge, the challenging Grief is the Thing with Feathers may well prove to be a mystifying, at times even bewildering, event.
However, anyone who plans to see the play had better take some time to read Porter’s work or at least brush up on English poet Ted Hughes’ Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, a collection of narrative poems regarding a mythological being, which is integral to the story. Indisputably this mad, murky, melancholy drama is a fine showcase for Cillian Murphy, who delivers a tour-de-force performance as a deeply grieving man. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, the show comes directly from the Barbican Theatre in London, where it received considerable acclaim. Photo: Teddy WolffĪ surreal study in sorrow, Grief is the Thing with Feathers is an adaptation of Max Porter’s 2015 novella by Irish playwright and director Enda Walsh. Cillian Murphy performs in Grief is the Thing with Feathers.
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