Watching three short comic masterpieces by Sean O’Casey at the Lyric Theatre this week makes you realize just how entertaining miniature gems of theatre can be.
Like Frank O’Connor short stories, they amuse, shock a bit and have masterly stings in the tail in this account from Druid Theatre. First up is the play in the post office in rural Ireland. Could be Donegal or somewhere similar and the pristine fiefdom of the smart, young postmistress is invaded by two seriously drunk men. As the worse for wear, by a long way, indiarubber actor Marty Rea playing Sammy is a floppy tour de force. He falls, sways, falls and insists on his rights. These include, the title of the one-act play, A Pound on Demand, if you sign on the dotted line and have a bank account. The problem is signing anything, let alone coherently, is beyond Sammy so money to continue his session seems a distant prospect. There is an elderly woman (Marie Mullen), unimpressed by the men, sending a registered letter somewhere far flung. The local police have to intervene and it doesn’t end well. The slapstick, and there is pushing and shoving between the OAP and the incomers, is superb.
In a way, O’Casey writing in the 1930s to the 1950s could be seen as providing forerunners to the sitcom. In the third play, The End of the Beginning, small-time farmers Lizzy and Darry swap roles as he says women’s work is easier. This is a popular sitcom trope, seen in Fawlty Towers in the episode The Builders where Basil comes to grief supervising the Irish handymen. Here disaster also beckons and it was entertaining seeing Rory Nolan excel as the feckless farmer, doing physical jerks, singing songs with m aate Barry, anything to avoid the household chores. When the men do get down to them, broken crockery, a heifer on a rope coming through the fireplace, a smashed window pane and so on are the result. The denouement, with th4e husband blaming his wife, is predictably funny.
The second play, Bedtime Story, is satirical, portraying the Catholic Church as a repressive influence on one young man, John Jo Mulligan who has just had a night of passion with Angela, and is trying to get rid of her at four a.m before his friend gets back. “The day after my novena” he wails, which makes it all worse. A farce of arrivals and some great dramatic irony ensue, with the other tenant claiming John Jo needs a girl to get over the insomnia he says has got him up at this hour. Tales of sleepwalking, potential violence and the arrival of the landlady full of schadenfreude complete the picture which ends with Mulligan about to be carted off to the asylum. It was well acted, with entrances and exits speedily done, and Catriona Ennis with her sexy crossing and uncrossing legs was a revelation. She also gets her satisfactory revenge for being booted out, taking John Jo for a ride.
This was an evening which highlighted the comedic ability, there in the great plays, of O’Casey who apparently had a penchant for music hall. Garry Hynes directed with flair.
Jane Hardy
