The Big Man Cometh – lauded take on Michael Collins story comes to Siamsa

FOILMORE DESCENDANT CILLIAN Ó GAIRBHÍ CHANNELS COLLINS IN THE BIG FELLOW, BASED ON FRANK O’CONNOR’S BIOGRAPHY

MICHAEL Collins strides like a colossus through the popular imagination today, but there mightn’t have been much of a geek out of him for years as his role in the War of Independence came to find itself airbrushed from the official DeValera history in the early days of the State.

Then along came Cork genius Frank O’Connor with The Big Fellow, his 1937 account of the life and times of the man from Clonakilty which did so much to restore Collins to a position more reflective of his pivotal role in our history.

It’s this creative juncture in the myth-making of modern Ireland that’s at the heart of a brilliant new play by Declan O’Gorman taking venues the country over by storm.

Starring a man with strong Kerry connections, Cillian Ó Gairbhí, in the lead role opposite the only other cast member, Gerard Adlum, as a range of characters from Frank O’Connor to Cathal Brugha, The Big Fellow stages in Siamsa on Wednesday next, February 22.

It’s a bit of a homecoming for Cillian, who grew up in Rathkeale steeped in Kerry football and culture thanks to his Foilmore-native father Sean Garvey: “I’m very much looking forward to bringing The Big Fellow to Siamsa as I absolutely love Kerry. There was no choice in the matter really growing up. We had to follow the Kingdom at all costs!” Cillian joked.

But he’s sucking it up for now to play the Cork man. “It was a bit daunting taking on the role in one sense I guess, but it’s a challenge you want to have as an actor as he is such an iconic figure.

“While everyone will have their own image of Collins, often based on their own politics, you have to serve the story and the man without worrying about the audience’s preconceived notions.”

He admits to having initially found it ‘tricky’ getting under Collins’s skin, but went back to Frank O’Connor’s book amid a myriad of other material at the outset of his research: “Frank O’Connor’s book did a lot to rehabilitate Collins at a time when he was being airbrushed from the official history. In the course of my research I found some of my own preconceived notions challenged.

“I would have seen him as a hardened individual, but uncovered a much softer side to the man. He was a man who could be moved to tears hearing of someone fallen on hard times; quite quick-tempered but equally quick to make amends and extremely personable.” Adlum meanwhile powers with verve through a variety of figures alongside Ó Gairbhí’s rock-solid Collins in a reportedly dazzling dynamic.

Cillian Ó Gairbhí as Michael Collins (left) and Gerard Adlam in scenes from Declan O’Gorman’s The Big Fellow, showing at Siamsa next Wednesday, February 22.