Marina Carr’s 1996 play conjures the rural Irish landscape in the tale of Portia (Alison Oliver) who marries for money and spends the rest of her life regretting it.

Director Carrie Cracknell brings her distinctive approach to a production that incorporates a haunting set of songs by Maimuna Memon, sung by the ghost of Portia’s dead twin Gabriel (Archee Aitch Wylie) who has, yes, the voice of an angel.

Assuaging her long-held grief over his death with booze and indiscriminate sex, Portia is a woman struggling to regain control of her life. Rumours about the nature of the twins’ relationship pollute the atmosphere as Portia stumbles around flinging out poetic insults and literary references.

“How can everyone be alive and not him?” she wails, like a young female Lear.

Fuelled by Cracknell’s inventive direction and a set of largely superb performances, particularly Sorcha Cusack as a wheelchair-bound granny with a cat o’ nine-tails for a tongue, it’s a strong play that strains a little too hard for the mythic.

Portia Coughlan, Almeida Theatre until November 18 Tickets: 020 7359 4404

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