Too-faithful adaptation of novel creates play that fails to ignite

Town Hall Theatre – Review by Judy Murphy

A new play by a new writer can be a difficult sell for a theatre company.

So, when Decadent Theatre opted to adapt Donal Ryan’s novel, The Thing About December, for stage, they were on a winner straight away.

Ryan is one of Ireland’s best-known authors, whose debut novel, The Spinning Heart, won the Guardian First novel of the Year among other accolades, and was long-listed for the Booker Prize. His subsequent novel, From a Low and Quiet Place, was also Booker long-listed.

The Thing About December, which was nominated for the 2013 Eason Novel of the Year in Ireland, centres on Johnsey, a lonely, simple young man living in rural Tipperary, whose parents have recently died. Johnsey, an only child, has inherited a fine farm, which he’s not able to manage, and his life becomes even more complicated when the farm is rezoned for development. Johnsey is bullied mercilessly, physically and more subtly, by his neighbours, most of whom want his valuable land. A beating from local bully, Penrose, lands him in hospital where he falls for his nurse, Siobhán, and forms a friendship with fellow-patient, Mumbly Dave.

Donal Ryan has stated that he was precious about this book being adapted for any other medium, describing the novel as “almost inviolable”.

But having chatted with the director Andrew Flynn who collaborated with actor and writer Jarlath Tivnan on its adaptation, Ryan was reassured that Andrew’s “vision for it was pretty much the same as mine”.

Therein lies the problem. Despite some fine performances – most notably from Ruairí Heading as Johnsey, Frankie McCafferty as Daddy and Anne Marie Horan as Mother – Decadent’s adaptation sticks too faithfully to the novel to be a piece of art in its own right.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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