Are the Irish Troubles over? The consensus would be that they have been since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In a program note Matt Torney, director of Leo McGann’s The Honey Trap, expresses the general view by stating with finality, “The Troubles are now over.”
Curious from him, because the play he helms takes place in the Belfast of 1979 and the present day and is a vehement example of how and why the Irish Troubles are anything but over.
The Honey Trap makes the disturbing point that the troubles rampant during the incendiary period were and are innumerable, continuing to persist, continuing to gnaw right up to today at not only Protestants and Catholics but others. Playwright McGann is undeniably implying that vast personal troubles still possibly disorient as many survivors as there were Irish Troubles participants.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★☆☆ review here.]
When action begins, former British soldier Dave (Michael Hayden) is being recorded while answering questions posed by American PH.D candidate and archivist Emily (Molly Ranson). She’s interviewing not only former IRA soldiers about their experiences during the conflict but as many others as she can to obtain a broader panorama. (She’s conducting her research in designer Charlie Corcoran’s quiet pub room that will eventually to be rearranged into several other Belfast locales.)
Throughout their exchange, Dave is animated, playful, yet cagey. At the same time, he’s remembering a particular 1979 event that has haunted him ever since. While Emily ostensibly continues her questioning, Dave—and the audience—is watching Young Dave (Daniel Marconi) and best friend Bobby (Harrison Tipping) whiling away drunken hours in a Belfast pub where a pair of Belfast cuties make eyes at them. Apparently, happy encounters ensue.
On and off during the act there are occasional interruptions by two soldiers that may be Dave and Bobby or may not be. Other relevant indications of Dave’s disturbed memory are also suggested. Just before the act ends Emily is heard on tape asking, “Was there ever any talk of honey traps.” No response, but, given his title, McGann knows that patrons will have hoped to hear one.
That would be, of course, if the term is unknown to them, as it was for this rapt listener. But okay, the meaning becomes clear in act two, although McGann cunningly makes his audience wait for it—and wait and wait.
So much so that for quite a while act two seems as if it may veer off the tracks. In the first of the three scenes, Dave stops into an unsuccessful Belfast coffee bar presided over by owner Sonia (Samantha Mathis). He introduces himself as Charlie. Hold the phone. Charlie? Is this Dave, or is this possibly a new character?
No, it’s Dave calling himself Charlie to heighten suspense. McGann intends it as such, although it may never have occurred to him that some viewers might think otherwise. (By any chance, is this a new character?) So caustic is this Dave/Charlie that he puts Sonia off. She comes back at him with just as many snarky putdowns. His intention, or so it appears, is giving her the romantic rush.
It works. Next thing you know, they’re dining at a posh restaurant. Presto-chango, Dave and Sonia are in a posh hotel room, a welcoming bed having been brought on to Corcoran’s easily adaptable set.
But as these fast-moving sequences unfold, audience members must be wondering what’s going on. Why after Dave has his way with Sonia and she with him does the drama that was The Honey Trap brazenly broaden into melodrama?
Actually, McGann has a circuitous route to reach the honey trap definition. It may be the term was well-known during the time. It also may be that it’s infrequently recalled now, surely to American audiences. But because of spoilers that would inevitably leak, nothing further will be disclosed.
What can be said is that British soldier Dave comes face to face with the term, which ultimately serves as McGann’s explanation of the severe problem he’s been suppressing since 1979. McGann’s honorable aim is to point out that whereas larger troubles may have ceased, other troubles haven’t, especially if no treatment for facing and overcoming them has been explored.
For this tough probing, McGann has the inestimable assistance of director McGann, whose job is cut out for him. He skillfully synthesizes a cast headed by Hayden, a top-drawer actor not seen enough in these parts since his career-revving performance in London’s National Theatre 1993 revival of Carousel, then transferred here. Stockier than he was as Billy Bigelow, he’s formidable, gruff, caustic, and disintegrating as a Dave burdened with a psychologically corroding secret.
As the embodiment of that past, Marconi is superbly domineering and in sharp contrast to Tipping as painfully naïve Bobby. As the prominently featured Sonia during the second half, Mathis is a straight-forward figure who’s increasingly more elusive, enigmatic.
Though The Honey Trap clamps down in an emotionally stunning conclusion, a reviewer’s mild query is whether in the Dave/Charlie twist does McGann risk confusing literally inclined spectators too much before revealing his devastating destination?
The Honey Trap opened September 28, 2025, at the Irish Repertory Theatre and runs through November 23. Tickets and information: irishrep.org
