Tommy T doesn’t help John B
Yes, it reeks of grim lives and rural repression but Druid’s Sive still falls short of its more illustrious forbears...
‘Stories like this should be history, but court reports say otherwise’
Sive Gate Theatre
Watching Tommy Tiernan as the matchmaker Thomasheen Seán Rua in this production, I couldn’t help thinking that the producers, having got him for the part, decided to milk the role for all it was worth. When he wasn’t slinking and elongating himself like a cartoon stick man, he crouched and twisted like the comic incarnation of a malignant spirit.
The subtle and humorous manipulations of John B Keane’s unscrupulous word-weaver became temporarily the Tommy Tiernan show, almost a side event to the repulsive spectacle of child abuse that sees a wealthy ancient lecher engineering a marriage to a helpless teenage schoolgirl. But a large part of the audience seemed to love it. In general, this Druid production captures Keane’s stark image of the mid-twentieth century hidden Ireland, with its isolation, poverty and oppressed women, far from the concept of a charming peasantry leading simple lives. The Glavin family spew vituperation at each other, driven by grim lives, social prejudice and family history.
The unfortunate Sive, born out of wedlock, is loved by her grandmother (Barbara Brennan), tolerated by her uncle and detested by his wife Mena. Sive’s value is measured against the price of pigs, cows, land and the money the decrepit Seán Dota will pay for her as a piece of marketable flesh. Her convent education is resented, and there’s a hint that she’s unlikely to get much help from the local priest. By now, stories like this should only be history, but newspaper and court reports say otherwise.
The story and characters are reminiscent of unsavoury folk tales and melodrama, with its chanting travelling tinkers alternately blessing and cursing, and echoes of Romeo and Juliet, all delivered with the resounding imagery of John B Keane’s scathing vocabulary.
But the letter device now looks not alone clumsy but unnecessary; it lengthens the play and makes it more stagey without adding anything worthwhile to it.
The production is memorable for the nuanced performance of Andrea Irvine as Mena, a woman constantly reproached for her childlessness, alternately scolding and cajoling the reluctant Sive into her loathsome plan, while bullying her husband (Brian Doherty) into her vision of a rosy future.
The character of Sive herself is not particularly well drawn, and Gráinne Good doesn’t add anything to it, while the set, with its huge vertical structure may have some symbolic meaning, but is actually an eye-catching distraction.