I’ve wanted to see this legendary play for years and now I see why it’s rarely performed in England. Its depiction of the lives of the inhabitants of a Dublin tenement sets out to shame the British administration whose perceived oppression led to the Easter Rising of 1916.
But if it were no more than polemic it would not have lasted. In fact O’Casey’s play touches greatness. Its construction invites comparison with Shakespeare who also alternated comedy with tragedy so effectively, Chekhov who gave inertia the same dynamic and not least the genius of Tennessee Williams who supremely showed humanity not as it is supposed to be but with all the flaws that make us human.
Here O’Casey gives us people caught up in great events, namely the revolt which led to the formation of the Irish State, but without romanticising them, and most of all giving women voices to speak eloquently over and over again about events traditionally believed to be beyond their ability to discuss, i.e. politics and war.
But it also pays its dues to the stage Irish clichés – the drink, the fights, the fecklessness, especially after the uprising begins when the ideal-less tenement dwellers loot at will. And tragedy lurks indiscriminately at its conclusion with miscarriage, madness and the bitter regret of the dying for having ever entertained a charitable thought. The play’s litany of horror is redeemed by these portraits of living, breathing people who we recognise and who behave as they will, not as we would have them, and it is this which makes the play great.
In such an outstanding cast it seems petty to single out individual actors but special mention must be made of Deirdre Molloy as the garrulous Mrs. Gogan, Frankie McCafferty as the self-regarding Peter Flynn, Laurence Kinlan as the gauche Marxist, the marvellous Gabrielle Reidy as Bessie Burgess the flinty spirit of old Ireland and the unforgettable Joe Hanley as comic Irishman Fluther Good.
The production runs at the Old Rep Station Street Birmingham until tomorrow October (13) and then tours. For tickets go online at birmingham-rep.co.uk.
