Reunion – Kiln Theatre

This is a tough one. A storm-weathered family convenes on “an island off the west coast of Ireland,” and all hell—less so breaks than steadily chips loose. En route from the Galway International Arts Festival, this production of Mark O’Rowe’s Reunion much like its island setting, holds a captive audience.

Its dialogue is natural and intriguing, and O’Rowe resists the kitchen sink dramatist’s persistent impulse to make his characters as mean as possible. A perfectly gender-split cast of five and five places surprising emphasis on its female characters’ internality, relegating its men to timorous punchlines at best (in the case of Stephen Brennan’s adorably addlepated Felix) and tremendous encumbrances at worst (in the case of Ian-Lloyd Anderson’s incredibly effectively irritating Aonghus).

Although it is invariably the play’s male characters who promulgate the plot’s various conflicts, it is the women in this story who end up scrapping them out and getting scraped up. Casual allusions to domestic violence are treated with less weight than accusations of disordered eating, a prioritisation of pain that feels distinctly unfeminist despite the playwright’s obviously earnest interest in the women he writes about.

A compelling portrait of dysfunction and its discontents, Reunion walks us up to—but refuses to go off—the deep end.

Reunion runs until 11th October at The Kiln Theatre with tickets available at https://kilntheatre.com/

Reviewer: Kira Daniels

Reviewed: 17th September 2025

North West End UK Rating: