Dion Boucicault’s comic melodrama from 1874 holds a place in theatre history for its playful upending of national stereotypes and expectations. Finding a delicious balance between whimsy and sincerity, Garry Hynes’s inventive production for Druid theatre company celebrates Boucicault’s gifts as a playwright and master of stage spectacle, whose creations dazzled 19th-century audiences in New York and London.
Miniaturist Approach and Set Design
This staging takes a miniaturist approach, with Sligo landscapes, cliff tops and gothic towers depicted as picture-book illustrations glimpsed from a distance. Ladders and furniture descend and glide, with assistance from the nimble cast of 10, most dextrously by Conn “the Shaughraun” (Aaron Monaghan), poacher and trickster. Here, Conn also acts as master of ceremonies cum stage manager, as if standing in for Boucicault himself.
The convoluted tale of land grabbing, kidnaps and English red coats in pursuit of escaped Fenians unfolds against Francis O’Connor’s set design of pages of an Ordnance Survey map of the west of Ireland. Setting the antics of the play in their colonial context, this also hints at Boucicault’s influence on Brian Friel’s Translations. And as in Friel’s play, comic misunderstandings complicate the romance between the wide-eyed English captain Molineux (Fintan Kinsella) and a savvy young local woman, Claire Ffolliott (Megan Cusack).
Plot and Performances
When Claire’s brother, Robert Ffolliott (Marty Rea), secretly returns from Australia having been deported by the devious magistrate, Kinchela (Rory Nolan), Molineux is increasingly befuddled by this “extraordinary” country. Kinchela, played with puffed-up villainy by Nolan, closes in on his prize of Ffolliott’s estate – and fiancee (Eileen Walsh) – as Conor Linehan’s live piano score propels it all with Victorian music-hall flourish.
Always strategising, the wily Conn affects gormlessness while plotting to spring Robert from jail. Perfectly cast, Monaghan is roguishly charming without being twee, his performance echoing his earlier embodiment of Christy Mahon in Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World, just as Marie Mullen as Conn’s lamenting mother mischievously taps into the many Synge widows she has played.
Influence and Legacy
With its layers of references to previous Druid productions, this one underlines Boucicault’s influence on many later Irish playwrights, while allowing everyone in the beautifully knit ensemble to have giddy, infectious fun. At Town Hall theatre, Galway, until 25 July. Galway international arts festival runs until 26 July.
