Philadelphia Here I Come (DVD)

Set in playwright Brian Friel's (Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer) mythical Ballybeg, Ireland, Philadelphia Here I come! presents an ingenious glimpse into the stock-taking of youth Gareth "Gar" O'Donnell on the eve of his departure for America. Through the myriad preparations and goodbyes that fill Gar's last day in Ireland comes a powerful portrait of the public boasts and private doubts that bedevil him on the threshold of his journey to a new life in a new land. Friel contrasts Gar's cloistered emotional life with his gregarious social persona by separating him into two distinct characters, a public self (Donal McCann) and a private self (Des Cave). As public Gar cheerfully goes about his rounds, private Far voices the anger and sadness, "the loneliness, the groping" that has positioned him between a loveless youth and an unknown future.