A Familiar Secret in ‘Thorn in Heart’

The posters for T.S. Kerrigan’s new drama “A Thorn in the Heart” inform us that “the Molloy women have a secret.” But you can probably guess what it is.

As brooding as it is obvious, Kerrigan’s play at the Globe Playhouse concerns one Emer Molloy (K.T. Vogt), a 30-ish woman who has returned to her Irish seacoast hometown after a string of failed love affairs in London.

It’s not a happy homecoming. Sister Rose (Rosheen Clancy) is an embittered, alcoholic paraplegic; sister Annie (Jacqueline Hahn) an equally embittered drudge. Widowed mother Maire (Patricia Place) is oblivious to most things, including the incestuous “secret” that has tormented her three girls into adulthood.

As critic Kate Roiphe argued in a recent essay, the theme of incest has lost some of its impact with overuse by contemporary writers. Kerrigan and director Terry Changet nevertheless manage some heart-rending moments here, most notably when Emer directs a tearful j’accuse against her enabling mother.

Unfortunately, the play’s reliance on familiar pop-psychology motivations yields an artificial air only occasionally relieved by the moody atmospherics of Changet’s production. In a difficult role, Vogt captures all of Emer’s tortured ambivalence, and John Eric Staley provides stalwart support as her love interest.

* “A Thorn in the Heart,” Globe Playhouse, 1107 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 9. $15. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.