Hughes and Plath.

This couple act as a metaphor for the death of creativity and potential. We keep going back to them in order to understand ourselves and our relationships better. I saw a play last night Doonreagan (it could have been called Doomreagan) at the small intimate Jermyn Street Theatre - I was virtually on the set in their living room. This combustible nightmare was about Hughes played excellently by (Daniel Simpson) and Assia Wevill by the mercurial (Flora Montgomery) - who was in Hughes life after the death of Plath. They had sort to escape and find solace in idyllic rural Ireland, but the ghost of Plath was there to greet them. We like to assume we can create a tabula rasa, but psychoanalysis teaches us otherwise. The occasional intimacy between Hughes and Wevill was broken by the constant demands of young children (acting as voices off stage) that were a reminder of previous intimacies. Like Burton and Taylor or Hamlet and Orphelia the couple act as a magnet, both attracting and repelling us in equal measure. Just so this play last night. Despite our best endeavours so often the past catches up with us. I saw this when working in the NHS and private practice as a - family and couple therapist. There is a deep flaw in the relationship that over times comes to the surface. A brilliant new play by Ann Henning Jocelyn that was acted with panache. Do try and see it before the 21st September.