THE LONEY

Richard Burnip performs this moody, disturbing tale with skill and polish but does little to alleviate its excessively monotone atmosphere. A Catholic family with a learning-disabled boy makes an annual pilgrimage along with their priest and some other parishioners to a shrine at an isolated Cambrian seacoast spot called the Loney. They are intent on a miracle for the disabled boy, but passionately as they believe in unseen forces, they are unable to recognize undercurrents of threat and weirdness that surround them at the Loney. Every story needs foreground, middleground, and background, but the sameness of Burnip's performance of men and women, adults and children, flattens these dimensions. Still the story greatly rewards attention. It is original, mysterious and powerful, and quite haunting. B.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2016]