Cork Midsummer Festival 2026: The Homecoming of Joseph Grace

Michael Glenn Murphy in The Homecoming of Joseph Grace. Image, Celeste Burdon

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For most of the country, Cork entertains notions far above its station. Delusions of being the country’s real capital. Of being the most interesting, energetic and exciting city in Ireland. Even its annual, local arts festival, Cork Midsummer, punches above its international weight. Yet Cork Midsummer Festival gives credence to the notion of Cork being that little bit special. Enlivening a city luxuriating in summer. Its solstice streets heavy with heat and people. Rich architecture restored, conserved, or left derelict in a losing battle against gentrified glass and steel. Soon everywhere will look like anywhere. But not tonight. Tonight its streets laugh out loud. Littered with love, lust, long lashes and testosterone. Its beautiful men, women, and other swaggering in finery or fashionably shabby. Strutting wild and unpredictable, with a dirty, sexy energy. Like its festival, whose stories are as old as wisdom and as young as a first affair. Cork the kind of tolerant space the troubled Joseph Grace might have run away to had it been like this back in 1914.

In Deirdre Kinahan’s sensitive piece of storytelling theatre, The Homecoming of Joseph Grace, one man’s monologue from Kells through Hells and back again charts his journey towards self-acceptance. But can he accept that others may still not accept his predilection for men? Especially in a country where homosexuality is socially, religiously and actually criminalised? Kinahan’s uneasy balance of story and character study an epic masquerading as a short story. Being both too much and too little; rich in brilliant description but weak on drama. Revealing political history’s shadowed corners, like Roger Casement’s Irish Brigade, but glancing across the salient details of Joseph’s personal history, like his first sexual encounter, or the death of a Sikh lover. Joseph’s history repeating itself in an endless escape from loneliness. Repeatedly signing up, be it as a British solider in 1914, a recruit for Irish liberation in 1916, or in Fascist Weimar between the wars. Always somewhere other than Ireland. Always falling for a man who breaks his heart. Always someone getting killed. And so it goes till Joseph gets to London where he settles down with a tailor and a life approaching normality. Kinahan’s hurried ending suggesting a return home to put family affairs in order. If only Joseph can get on the bus.

Michael Glenn Murphy in The Homecoming of Joseph Grace. Image, Celeste Burdon

Textually, it’s hard to understand why Joseph would want to reconnect with his estranged family, or country, beyond desperation. If action is initially defined within clear historical timelines, the longer the plays goes on, the more timelines blur. But not enough to suggest anything other than a bigoted Ireland where loneliness is another confirmation of weakness. With so many plates spinning, it all feels like the abridged version when you want the full, unedited text. Dramatically there’s nothing at stake, just a character you care for recounting their past. A Quentin Crisp wannabe if only he'd had the courage. Instead, like the ever chugging bus, the play's engine turns over but the wheels aren’t moving. Yet director Louise Lowe’s pacing and compositional smarts reveal what Kinahan points at. Aided by Owen Boss’s sparing design of square patterned linoleum and corrugated roof encasing Ciaran Bagnall’s filthy, liminal lights. Both crafting mood and texture; the stage both a place and no place, a time and no time. Joan O’Clery’s neat suited costume and Carl Kennedy’s period and psychological score superbly adding layers of depth. Yet so rich is Kinahan’s detail, Joseph's monologue risks sounding like a non-fiction, autobiographical audiobook. Luckily there's the inimitable Michael Glenn Murphy, whose physicality, tones and gestures speak to deeper truths.

A man with a suitcase stuck in a moment, sunken shouldered and exiled at home, Murphy’s Joseph seeks delicate connections in world of punished loves. Struggling to know if he’s a man or a mouse in the masculine scheme of things. Murphy’s Joseph a mouse that roars and a man who cries and craves tenderness. Hands pressed against lower back, fingers trembling with fear or desire, Murphy's towering vulnerability and commanding presence proves irresistible. Kinahan’s character shaped to reveal a veritable universe. Just as Cork, some would argue, might not be Ireland’s capital, The Homecoming of Joseph Grace is arguably not Kinahan’s strongest play. But with Murphy at the fore, The Homecoming of Joseph Grace hits poignantly home, the experience proving that little bit special.

The Homecoming of Joseph Grace by Deirdre Kinahan, presented by Once Off Productions and Cork Midsummer Festival in association with Pavilion Theatre, runs as part of Cork Midsummer Festival 2026 until June 20th.

For more information visit Cork Midsummer Festival 2026

The Homecoming of Joseph Grace will tour to Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire from 16-19 July 2026