Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 5th September 2015
The Adelaide Repertory Theatre Society enlisted Kerrin White to direct their September production, a play written by the prolific and successful playwright,
Martin McDonagh, that looks in on a group of very quirky characters living in a small and isolated community.
Produced by Michael Balcon and directed by Robert J. Flaherty, the 1934 British film, Man of Aran was made to show the hard life of those living on the Aran Islands. It took a few liberties for dramatic effect, well, many liberties to be honest, such as the entire shark fishing segment, an activity that had not been carried out for over fifty years, but it is a remarkable film, nonetheless, and well worth watching if you can find a copy.
Martin McDonagh uses this factual event as a catalyst for the action in his black comedy,
The Cripple of Inishmaan, but turns the team making the film into producers from America. This is one play from his trilogy, along with The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Banshees of Inisheer. Inishmore (Irish: Inis Mór), where the filming is taking place, is by far the largest of the three Aran Islands, whilst the other two are considerably smaller, Inishmaan (Irish: Inis Meáin) being only slightly larger than Inisheer (Irish: Inis Oírr).
The three are off the western coast of Ireland in Galway Bay, and are a part of County Galway, in Connacht. They form a line, Inishmore to the north, with Inishmaan located between the other two. The name, in fact, means middle island, Inisheer meaning east island, and Inishmore meaning big island.
There is more than a suggestion of inbreeding in the play, virtually unavoidable on an isolated island with only a small population. Even today its population is only around 160, not much more than a thousand on all three islands. They are also insular, speaking the Irish language, Gaeilge, almost exclusively, and strongly adhering to their religion. Gaelic, by the way, is the Scottish language, and there is no such thing as Irish Gaelic, as people are often mistakenly heard to refer to Gaeilge.
Armed with this knowledge, a lot of what happens in the play becomes clearer, such as why it is a difficulty getting across to Inishmore, and why one resident runs around telling his snippets of what he calls "news" in exchange for goods and services, as newspapers are not the daily delivery that one expects in a big city. The only way in or out is by boat, so the islands have to be self-sufficient.
Cripple Billy Claven's parents drowned when he was a baby, an event rumoured to have been suicide, and that others claim to have been to get away from him, and he has been raised by the two sisters who run the village shop, Eileen and
Kate Osbourne, who have become his "aunties". Regular visitors to the shop are the siblings, Helen and Bartley McCormick, her with a constantly bad temper, and him the village idiot. She pegs eggs at priests who molests her, and kills a goose and a cat for money. He is obsessed with telescopes, desperately wanting one and talking incessantly about them. For some reason, Billy is attracted to often violent Helen, but he keeps it to himself for fear of further ridicule.
The local gossip, Johnnypateenmike is another regular, swapping his bits of boring, meaningless trivia, his "news", for eggs, bread and similar items. We find Bartley repeating Johnnypateenmike's news, almost word for word, perhaps thinking that the old man holds a position of importance to the community, which he can borrow to increase his own reputation.
Johnnypateenmike has a nonagenarian mother, Mammy O'Dougal, a heavy drinker who is attended by Doctor McSharry, who criticises her. She is trying to drink herself to death, and Johnnypateenmike is happy to assist her, their constant arguments and insults raising many a laugh. Babbybobby Bennett, a boatman who is persuaded to transport Bartley, Helen, and Billy to Inishmore, completes the group of villagers that we meet.
Sue Wylie and Tracey Walker are a great double act as Eileen and
Kate Osbourne, entirely believable in their relationship as two spinster sisters who have spent their entire lives together. It is clear that, although they too call him Cripple Billy and see him as badly flawed, they love him dearly. Their characterisations are excellent, and their rapport creates a genuine feeling of sisterhood.
Matt Houston makes a wonderful Cripple Billy, physically limited, but with a very active mind, often found reading and, although laughed at for staring at cows, quietly thinking, away from people. Those around him see the obvious and overlook the rest, treating him as rather simple, something he does not resist. He does, though, want to escape that, and the island, and the news of the film crew shows him a way out. Houston lets us see all of Billy's frustrations, hopes, dreams and desires, letting a little out at a time so that we gradually realise that there is a lot more to him than we see at the start. Houston gives a marvellous performance in the role, consistent in his movements and deeply engaged with his character.
John Leigh Gray could almost pass for one of the wee folk as Johnnypateenmike, with his beard, dress, and physical demeanour, but his news is usually only a crock of worthless dust. He brings the self-important blowhard to us in a lively characterisation that causes a good supply of laughs.
Benjamin Maio Mackay and
Mary Rose Angley are the squabbling mid-teenage siblings, Bartley and Helen. He nicely underplays the role of the simple minded youth with a telescope fixation, and a taste for particular types of 'sweeties' that the shop does not stock but for which he repeatedly asks and looks for in the penny sweets boxes, driving Eileen to distraction. He neatly maintains a believable character, avoiding the danger of falling into caricature. She, too, avoids that trap, her interpretation of Helen as a gangly young woman with a penchant for swearing, throwing and breaking eggs, and assorted acts of violence ringing true. Together, they are well paired, their verbal and physical interchanges not exactly unknown between siblings.
Alan Fitzpatrick plays Babbybobby Bennett, a quiet loner, still saddened by the loss of his wife to tuberculosis. Fitzpatrick keeps a calm stillness in his characterisation, presenting a man who prefers to keep himself to himself. He allows us to see Babbybobby's sadness, his emptiness, and why he then reacts violently when he discovers that Billy has lied and played upon his grief to get to Inishmore.
Ben Todd plays Doctor McSharry, the voice of reason in the play, giving us a kindly and caring character, a pillar of the community. Todd creates a character in which he convincingly portrays not just a doctor, but a friend and trusted confidant of all of the community.
Eleanor Boyd makes the most of every moment that she has on stage in the role of Mammy O'Dougal, happily aging disgracefully, and the bane of her son's life. She gets her own share of laughs, and even more in the sniping and insulting exchanges with John Leigh Gray's Johnnypateen.
Director, Kerrin White, has used a mix of experienced actors and relative newcomers, with Benjamin Maio Mackay and
Mary Rose Angley still at high school. The newer actors, though, hold their own well, rising to the challenge of appearing alongside those with a good few years of experience, and delivering equally notable performances.
White also designed the set, the main part of which is the shop, shelves stacked high with tins of peas and, it appears, not much else. Given the people we meet, that does not seem particularly strange at all. Others locations are in front of a curtain, with just a few set pieces implying bigger locations. Lighting designer, Jo Topperwien, could have made more use of coloured gels and specials to add greater effect to some of these scenes, rather than a plain was across the all, or most of the set
Everybody makes a good effort at an Irish accent, attempting to establish a similar accent across the cast. Perhaps an accent coach might have been of value to tidy up a few little inaccuracies in pronunciation, and in phrasing or, perhaps having being involved in the Irish community in Adelaide for the last couple of decades, I am being a little too picky. No doubt most audience members would not have noticed.
All in all, this is a production well worth a visit, but you only have until next Saturday, so don't delay.
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