Review: Driftwood’s “The Hen Night Epiphany”

By Janette Turner

“It’s my hen night and we have the small matter of a hangover to prepare.” With that, Una (Colleen Carey) and her Dublin girlfriends, Kelly (Kelly Johnson) and Triona (Ellen Dessleer), mix up Bitch Whiskeys out of Jack Daniels, Kahlua, and full-fat milk – a combination as lethal as inviting your future mother-in-law to your hen night, otherwise known as a bachelorette party.

Unlike the standard bachelorette party in Vegas, “The Hen Night Epiphany” takes place in a remote Irish cabin — a place Una plans to turn into a home with her fiancé Kevin. Kevin’s mother, Olive (Frances Hearn) attends the camping hen party as the supportive future in-law, but she’s the kind of woman always fretting over appearances and smoothing life’s bumps. She defends her son’s honor and claims he’s a good boy – which sets up the crux of the play. Is Kevin a knight in shining armor, or a man with a violent streak, as Anta (Laura Crouch) claims?

“You have no vision,” says Una, defending her dream of a home with a nursery. “Sometimes you have to see beyond the broken glass and the cracks.” Perhaps Una is right. Perhaps Kevin’s cracks can be fixed or forgotten, or perhaps “a woman can spend her whole life hoping.”

“The Hen Night Epiphany” by Jimmy Murphy is a powerful play with strong performances by the Driftwood TIP players, directed by Roy Arauz of Aurouet Theatre, which co-produced the show. There are only two more performances in Edmonds: on Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m., before the production heads to Seattle’s DownStage Theatre, aka Stone Soup Theatre. Ticket information is here. And if you plan to drink Bitch Whiskeys to get in the mood, sip slowly. You’re going to need a clear head.