Munster Express Online

The Abbey, the National Theatre, have revived the O’Casey classic The Plough and the Stars with a young director Wayne Jordan and mostly young cast. As you would expect, this production takes a fresh look at this play and Jordan uses a stripped down Brecht style to explore whatever meanings this play has for this century. Mostly it is the anti-war message that comes across and the socialist lines of The Covey evoked a lot of laughter.

I didn’t like the style of set design that forced some actors to speak directly to the audience from a wooden floor section. The figure in the window made four appearances striding the length of a bar top to extol the merit of blood sacrifice. While the women of the play took a central position of their love being sacrificed for the manly duty of war service. And why oh why – have Bessie Burgess atop a ladder spouting her vile taunts through a cloth gap? That said Gabrielle Reidy’s work as Bessie Burgess was impressive and the performance of the production.

Jordan’s direction had Cathy Belton’s Mrs.Grogan doing karate kicks and his emphasis was weighted toward the comic aspects.

Joe Hanley was excellent as Fluther Good and he exemplified the bar-room bombast and the fake story heroics of tall tale politicians and go-by-the-wall explainers of history.

It was good to see a young cast taking on a difficult text but there were dropped line endings and a lack of vocal emphasis at times.

This production runs until 25th September. If Seán O’Casey were alive today he might be vitriolic that Anglo Irish Bank are still listed as sponsors of the national theatre and he might thunder that the time is still “rotten ripe for revolution.”