Fine production of dated melodrama

Stage Irishry is to the fore again in Druid’s latest production, Dion Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn, directed by Garry Hynes which opened on Tuesday night in the city’s Black Box Theatre.

The play, which got its first outing on Broadway in 1860, before going on to become the toast of London in the winter of that year, and later wowed Dublin, is based on a true and tragic story from Limerick in 1819, in which a young woman was murdered on her husband’s instructions. But Boucicault’s The Colleen Bawn, being a melodrama, has a happy ending, despite a few darker moments.

There’s love between members of different social classes and the problems that brings, confusion as to who is having an affair with whom, issues of money, social status, murder and an abundance of cute Irish hoors.

That this play provoked such hilarity in Victorian London and Dublin less than 13 years after the tragedy of the Great Irish Famine speaks volumes about that particular era. From that point of view, it’s an interesting piece of dramatic history.

But remove it from that context to today’s setting and it’s a pretty fluffy piece of work, for all its enjoyable linguistic gymnastics.

The landed Hardress Cregan (Marty Rea) is in a dilemma, having secretly married a peasant Irish girl, the eponymous Colleen Bawn (Kelly McAuley), an impetuous act which has put his family fortune in jeopardy. Marriage to his wealthy cousin Anne Chute would offer an ideal solution – but she doesn’t know he already has a wife. Besides, her heart belongs elsewhere.

An answer to Hardress’s dilemma is offered by his loyal manservant Danny Mann – played by Aaron Monaghan, who seems destined to be cast as Druid’s resident cripple. Throw in Hardress’s protective mammy, an archetypical Irish priest, an old crone and a few more stock characters for good measure and there’s room for lots of confusion and laughter, as well as one shocked intake of breath.

Druid’s production is terrific with fine performances from its ensemble cast, some of whom double up in roles. Aisling O’Sullivan as Anne Chute, after a rather low-key entrance, is especially good. She huffs and puffs around the stage as the wronged woman and her linguistic acrobatics are fantastic.

Rory Nolan as Myles-na-Coppaleen, the roguish poacher and poitín maker, who turns out to possess both integrity and intelligence, also turns in a fine and funny performance, as does Maeliosa Stafford as the sleeven land agent, Mr Corrigan. 

Francis O’Connor’s modernist set, Ben Ormerod’s intense lighting and an ensemble performing live music add to the experience.

But these lavish production elements – with bells, whistles and shillelaghs – only serve to highlight the fact that this play is one step up from pantomime; if someone had shouted out ‘he’s behind you!’ at certain points, it would have come as no surprise.

There’s no question but this is a fine production. The more salient question is why such energy and resources went into staging this particular drana at a time when theatre could play a more useful and unique role by dramatically – even melodramatically – addressing issues facing contemporary Irish society.