Whether fate or mistakes bring four women together at a remote Irish farmhouse turned Airbnb, no matter. What results from their community brings understanding, truth and an expiation of suppressed feelings and guilt. If allowed to remain buried, these would bring more self-recriminations and self-torment in Erica Murray’s sensitive drama The Loved Ones. Successfully making its way through Irish Repertory Theatre’s summer season, the heartfelt play runs through August 2, 2026.

Nicola Murphy Dubey aptly directs Murray’s rendering of grief four individual women experience alone and together. Indeed, the play strikes with nuanced humor and pathos in its New York City premiere. The Loved Ones‘ world premiere opened at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland in 2023.

Maryann Plunkett in her inimitable way shines as Nell, the resilient and resourceful owner of the farmhouse, upended by the arrival of the three female visitors. A beacon of authenticity Plunkett leads the sterling ensemble who include, Alana Raquel Bowers (Gabby), Donna Lynn Champlin (Cheryl-Ann) and Clare O’Malley (Orla). During the course of the play, the women find each other and themselves with the resolve that “things’ will get better as they deal with loss and pain in their lives.

For three of the women the loss centers around Robin, Nell’s son, Orla’s husband, Gabby’s college professor. We learn he died six months prior in an accident. By degrees as each enters the combination kitchen-living room communal space of Nell’s Airbnb, neatly oufitted by Tatiana Kahvegian’s scenic design, we learn of their backstories.

The pregnant Gabby’s circumstances seem the most trenchant. A complete stranger she attempts to convince Plunket’s Nell that she carries Robin’s baby, Nell’s grand daughter. Shocked, Nell listens, questions and processes this unbelievable truth from the unwanted, unexpected 21-year-old, who intends to stay for the night. However, this extraordinary “inconvenience” throws Nell off her “game” and upends her expectations as she must re-evaluate the course of her life.

Piling on the angst for Nell, Orla, her daughter-in-law arrives for the weekend to memorialize the man dear to them both. They’ve agreed to spread Robin’s ashes which Orla has brought from London to return him to his birthplace. Meanwhile, the pregnant Gabby wants to get to know her baby’s grandmother at the same time Robin’s wife has come to grieve her husband. Adding to the complication because of Nell’s mistake in handling the App calendar for for her Airbnb, the 50-something American, Sheryl-Ann booked a stay to do some bird-watching the very same weekend. So Gabby and Sheryl-Ann shatter Nell’s hoped-for, much needed quiet time of remembrance and mourning with daughter-in-law Orla.

Using breakfast as an excuse to get Gabby and Sheryl-Ann out of the farmhouse, Nell sends them to her friend’s place in town just before Orla arrives. We discover she intends to have Gabby stay at “Stevie’s” to keep her from meeting Orla and adding outrage to Orla’s grief at Robin’s loss, if Gabby unwittingly reveals the identity of her baby’s father.

For a time Nell’s plan works. Gabby and the loud Sheryl-Ann do not intrude on the comfort and solace Orla and Nell share in a lovely scene. Then, we find out that Orla wanted children with Robin, had miscarriages and tried IVF. Insensitively, the doctors label her womb “inhospitable.” However, Robin’s death stirs Orla to want to try again since the clinic still has his semen. When she asks for Nell’s blessing at trying once more despite the risks, Nell avers. The irony of what Orla asks Nell lands heavily when she suggests Nell would have a granddaughter and shared family experience.

At that precise moment Gabby returns from breakfast announcing she can’t stay at Stevie’s because of “the flood.” Meeting Orla, face to face for the first time, Orla becomes involved with Gabby’s homeless situation. In another irony Orla suggests she stay at Nell’s since the farmhouse has rooms and she must care for herself during her pregnancy. Reluctantly, Nell agrees, not to appear suspicious, but her hesitation indicates she fears the inevitable “reveal.”

At times Murray’s set up of coincidences appear contrived and almost too clever. For example she presents the ironic contrast that Orla struggles in misery to get pregnant while Robin easily impregnates Gabby. Clearly, Orla desperately wants a child and Gabby would have an abortion, but she finds out too late in the fifth month of her pregnancy. Gabby’s naivete seems another contrivance when she ignores her body’s changes. In denial she allows the pregnancy to continue then decides to have the baby adopted. On further discussion, Nell chides her that she will need her mother’s and family’s help which Gabby hasn’t thought through. Fearful of her mom’s and friends’ response to her carelessness at getting pregnant, she tells no one. Instead, she makes her way to Ireland and tells Robin’s mom.

For these contrivances and others Murray tries to build solid logic to fill in the gaps with success and diminish the obviously gerry-rigged circumstances. Thankfully, the actors create the emotional drama so that the inevitable explosion of the truth lands in an unexpected moment at the end of Act I. Throughout, we remain engaged in the relationships that form and the emotional turn of events. And in one of the greater ironies of the play, the loud-mouthed American whose cheerfulness annoys, proves caring and endearing. Donna Lynne Chmplin’s Cheryl-Ann presents the metaphors that resonate hope and beauty by the play’s poignant conclusion.

The Loved Ones runs 2 hours 15 minutes at Irish Repertory Theatre through August 2, 2026.