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20 October 2010
The Big Fellah.
"Theatre Review "
By: Julia Gasper Richard Bean’s new play, The Big Fellah, is about IRA activists in America in the 1970s and 1980s. It follows the story of a youngish Irishman called Michael Doyle who decides to get involved with the IRA in New York. He shelters an IRA fugitive called Rory who appeals to an American court to give him status as a freedom fighter rather than as a mere violent criminal. There is much we can learn from this play about the history of the IRA struggle and their links with, among others, the Mafia and the Communist regime in Libya, both of which helped them to get hold of supplies of arms. The programme offers a chronology like a brief GCSE course with all the important facts and dates in the long, long struggle. But the play really does not succeed in gripping its audience. We never gain enough insight into Michael Doyle himself to understand why he chooses to get involved with this cause. The play does not glorify the IRA, which is portrayed as ruthless and fanatical, but somehow the whole thing lacks dramatic vitality. Michael’s girlfriend says to him “There was something compelling about you,” before she is shot by his thug friends. Alas, the same cannot be said of play. The deaths did not move me at all. The language was dominated by the monotonous use of the word fuck, and there were too many anachronisms. When the date was supposed to be 1972, a girl was described as “hot”, meaning desirable. That term didn’t come in until the 2000s. “Gorgeous” would have been more suitable. And why did we see a mini-skirt and stiletto heels when the date was supposed to be 1981? Ireland fought a bloody battle for Home Rule for many centuries, and then almost immediately joined the European Union. There is no sign in the play of any awareness of that irony of fate. If you’re interested in the history of the IRA, you may enjoy this play, but for most of the audience I think it was not enthralling. The Big Fellah is being performed by Out of Joint Theatre Company at the Oxford Playhouse until Saturday October 23rd 2010. Source: http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ | ||
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