Feisty Katie Roche makesadecision… but is it the right one?
Caoilfhionn delivers tour de force in a production that disappointed overall
For such a prolific writer, Teresa Deevy is a strangely forgotten figure in Irish theatre. This play, first performed at the Abbey in 1936, was one of six she had produced there. After that her work was dropped, although she wrote more than 20 for stage and many others for radio, despite being deaf from the age of 20. Katie Roche was last produced at the Abbey in 1994.
Modern parlance would probably describe Katie as crazy and mixed-up. Is her behaviour the result of being born out of wedlock to unacknowledged parents in 1930s Ireland? She had to work hard for the nuns at one stage but there’s no implication that she was mistreated.
She seems at home but frustrated as a servant to the middle-aged Gregg family, Stanislaus and his sister. She’s feisty, funny, and selfassured, except as regards serious relationships. Should she marry the decent, respectful but emotionally-dead architect Stanislaus or get involved with the more adventurous but unpredictable Michael Maguire?
‘What we’re born to, that’s what we’ll be. Everyone here knows about you but they won’t be holding it against you,’ says Michael, dampening her fantasies of grandeur.
Without being pushed into it, she opts for Stanislaus. Is it fear of never otherwise achieving status? The wandering, supposedly holy man Reuben, her actual father – and not a very convincing figure – is the only one who pours scorn on her, actually beats her and blames her behaviour on the circumstances of her birth. She’s thrilled to be told, wrongly, that she’s the daughter of a man from the Big House. The play never follows through with the tragic possibilities inherent in her actions. It eventually boils down to a battle of wills between Katie and her new husband. You can have sympathy for her but equally you can sympathise with the eternal bachelor in Stan’s character. And ultimately we’re left unsure about Katie’s real feelings. Is the ending an improvement or a reversal for her? Director Caroline Byrne – obviously feeling that things needed an emotional boost – has larded the production with symbolism. There’s the initial clay and dirt that’s brushed away to show a new beginning, the rain clattering down implying that married life is not all bliss, especially when Michael is still hovering round, and the multiple sacred images and background mirror reflections that seem to be taking the audience into the scene.
The play is a fine psychological portrait of an intelligent girl in an uninspiring community but none of the other characters have the same depth and, ultimately, it’s dramatically disappointing.
The acting however is excellent and Caoilfhionn Dunne captures all of Katie’s wilful, fun-loving and exasperating nature.