After The Applause

This large-scale production of John Milton Synge’s riveting story of youth and self-discovery sticks to Irish traditions and is a spectacle to view but sometimes the story gets incredibly lost…

I know that this is a play that when announced caused a lot of excitement, not only as it is a very popular Irish play due to its symbolism as the centrepiece of the Irish Literary Revival of the 19th and early 20th century, but also due to the superstar cast including Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan and Amandaland’s Siobhan McSweeney. I was looking forward to it and knew that the National would put a lot of effort into this ensuring it goes well!

I will start with what i enjoyed..

The play as a whole is an engaging story, Christie Mahon stumbles into Peegeen Flaherty’s pub and claims he has killed his father, but instead of shunning and punishment he becomes a local celebrity, especially with the women of the town. It is a very funny play and I enjoyed how light hearted it felt at times, director Caitriona McLaughin manages to create the feeling of an intertwined Irish town with a small cast of characters and I also enjoyed the addition of music underscoring the scenes throughout. I thought the costumes were beautiful and very traditional and the set was simplistic yet felt like an authentic pub, both designed by Katie Davenport.

The leading cast that I thought were superb were Declan Conlon as Old Mahon, who appears at the end of the first act even though Christie claims that he is dead, Christie Mahon himself portrayed with such youthful, excitable energy by Éanna Hardwicke and most of all Siobhán McSweeney who just steals the show completely. While I admit she does get gifted the funniest and then also the most thought provoking lines by Millington Synge, she takes them and uses them brilliantly. Her stage presence is absolutely brilliant from start to finish and I believe she upstages every character, even when she doesn’t have a line. A really impressive performance by her, she is very talented!

Now onto where my problems lay with this production. Firstly, I found Coughlan disappointing, especially considering she was billed as the big star of the show. I felt at times she mumbled her lines and she was too focused on stage presence rather than actually saying her lines, there were moments where sadly we lost important lines or they were just said in a very monotone manner. It is a shame because I think she’s a superb actress, maybe the night I saw her wasn’t her night but she definitely didn’t make me go ‘wow, what an actress’, that was McSweeney!

I loved that they cast all the main cast as Irish actors as it made the play feel more authentic but it was very clear that there were actors in the ensemble who were not Irish and there were an awful lot of accent slips for a professional production, mainly in the scenes where they were shouting all at once, I could hear some English accents shining through sadly. Maybe this was only something I noticed but for me it took away from the authenticity of the play.

I researched after that this play was written in the evocative language of Hiberno-English, which is essentially a blend of Gaelic and English. It is similar to that of Shakespearean language in that it is sometimes really difficult to understand what lines mean and it took me about 30 minutes to really get into it as I am not used to that sort of language. Sometimes, mainly from the ensemble and often Coughlan lines weren’t said really clearly which did mean I lost certain points of detail. For example, Lorcan Cranitch as Michael Flaherty in the final scenes is incredibly intoxicated and whilst he was hilarious I couldn’t overly understand what he was saying and i believe it was quite important!

These are small things and I may have just had my Mr Theatre Critic hat on! I feel they were important to mention as they hindered my enjoyment of this production of a really engaging and lovely play.

MY VERDICT:

This production does a lot right but also a lot that I don’t feel works, it felt inconsistent in quality at times and as I said at the beginning of my review the story felt like it got lost. The comedy elements were relished and therefore the moments of drama felt severely undercooked.

Would I still recommend this? I think I would, whilst not perfect, it is enjoyable and the plot is engaging as are most of the main actors! It is bright and sticks to its Irish roots brilliantly. Not the best National production, but still manages to entertain!

_{The Playboy Of The Western World plays at the Lyttelton Theatre in London until 28th February and will then be in cinemas from 28th May}