REMEMBERING EAVAN’S GIFT ONE YEAR ON
MICHAEL MOFFATT SHOWS OF THE WEEK
The Everyman, Cork launches into a new programme of video streaming from April 27 to May 2 with a production of Boland: Journey of a Poet, exploring the mind and imagination of one of Ireland’s most accessible and accomplished poets, the late Eavan Boland who died almost a year ago. Presented by Druid and directed by Garry Hynes, it’s performed by Siobhán Cullen and streamed from The Mick Lally Theatre in Galway.
The production examines Boland’s relationship with family, poetry, memory, womanhood and national identity, using her own words, edited by Colm Tóibín.
The production will feature the artist Debbie Chapman onstage, creating a piece of art in response to the production. The poster for the production features a painting of Boland by her mother, the expressionist painter Frances Kelly.
nCity, a new solo work recorded from the Everyman stage, written and performed by John McCarthy stretches itself over time, places, historical events and legendary tales about Cúchulainn.
It takes in stories, inventions – old and ultra-modern – and the whole fabric of life from the sounds of a city and birds, the texture of bricks and mud, to the provision of breast milk, planning permission, sales and late-night taxi queues.
McCarthy has a passion for sounds and words and sights and the minutiae of human and earthly life. In fact, he’s so fascinated with words and the universal that he’s inclined to lose focus on his title in a kind of prose poem that needed some judicious editing
Blistering exposé of legal hypocrisy
The question of rape and sexual relationships is a hot topic right now and the word ‘consent’ is being paraded as the ultimate criterion for sexual behaviour. All the intricacies of language and legal jargon get an airing in Consent by Nina Raine, in the 2017 archive recording which is now streaming from The English National Theatre.
It begins in leisurely style with two legal families in which the men and women are having fun using the sort of unexpurgated language about sex that’s a far cry from the legalistic niceties of the courtroom. But when the law, legal terminology and courtroom procedure are brought into the picture it’s far from clear how justice can be done in rape cases and why so many assault prosecutions don’t succeed or never get to court in the first place.
The two lawyers coach an actress who’s taking a role in a play about a sex crime, giving her all the pitfalls of the real situation. There’s a very disturbing scene showing one of the lawyers in a rape case making things very difficult for the victim. But when the reality of the lawyers’ marriages come under the microscope things start to unwind dramatically and they are put in the position of female defendants.
The tempo steps up to a blistering finale that must have been as exhausting to perform as it is to watch, as accusations fly and legal definitions are shown to be inadequate in stressful situations. The reality of their lives are contrasted with the outside appearance of controlled self-assurance.
The dramatic crossfire brilliantly undermines the belief that the law can exclude human emotions. Two of the main roles are taken by Ben Chaplin and Anna Maxwell Martin (Motherland).
The bare stage with minimum props shows how it’s possible to achieve brilliant dramatic tension through great acting and a director who can get the most out of a script.