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On
McQuillan's Hill
Finborough
Theatre
February 2020
A note in the programme tells
us that Joseph Crilly's play caused something of a stir in Ireland twenty
years ago with its jaundiced view of some of the myths by which the Irish
like to define themselves.
We're talking about
comforting fictions like that the Irish are all colourful but
harmless alcoholics, village Ireland is a place of pastoral innocence, the
IRA was made up of valiant freedom fighters, and all sex and romance in
Ireland is pure, conventional and strictly for procreative purposes.
The question facing a revival
of On McQuillan's Hill is whether the play can be as provocative or
involving out of the time and place in which it was written. And, judging
from this rather sluggish and shapeless production, the answer is
negative.
The play introduces us to
several related characters and stories. Minor IRA figure Fra Maline is
newly out of prison looking for whoever it was who shopped him. A reunion
with old drinking buddy Dessie suggests there may have been something more
intimate than mere friendship between them.
Meanwhile Fra's long-banished
sister Loretta also comes home, having decided to buy the decrepid village
hall and convert it to a hotel, to be refurbished by her old boyfriend
Ray. And Fra's daughter Theresa knows there are some secrets about her
past and wants answers.
The essentially plotless
first act of Crilly's play is taken up by introducing these characters and
their back stories. And then the essentially plotless second act consists
of telling us that most of what we were told in Act One was untrue, with
characters either not knowing all the facts, misinterpreting what they
knew, keeping secrets or just lying.
The new sets of revelations
are not especially shocking, though they do resolve most of the mysteries.
But with the partial exception of Theresa, who does learn what she wanted
to know, nobody is appreciably better off, worse off or, indeed,
particularly affected by the news.
And what's more, we don't
particularly care. Again with the partial exception of Theresa, who
appears to be the only wholly innocent victim among them, none of the
characters is presented as attractive, admirable or well-meaning enough to
inspire much sympathy or even interest.
The fault does not lie with a
hard-working cast led by Johnny Vivash as Fra, Gina Costigan as Loretta
and Julie Maguire as Theresa. Some of it must belong to director Jonathan
Harden, who is unable to draw us into the characters or story, or to give
the play any shape, rhythm, consistant tone or forward momentum.
But it is probably just that there is less to the play than there may have seemed to Irish audiences in 2000.
Gerald
Berkowitz
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Review - On McQuillan's Hill - Finborough Theatre 2020