DUBLIN FESTIVAL
Guiding spirit
Harold Matthews The roistering republican spirit of the late Brendan Behan presided over the Dublin Festival where, among all the world premieres, the prime attraction was Richard's Cork Leg, an hilarious piece of irreverence which Behan left unfinished but which Alan Simpson, aided by notes supplied by the widow, has worked into the usual two-hour length. The Abbey Theatre Company with The Dubliners put this on at the Peacock Theatre as an Entertainment,' which, set in a cemetery, it certainly was. The Abbey provided the acting and The Dubliners the songs, thus causing some dichotomy between professionalism and pop. The combination, more suited to barroom than stage, was an appropriate tribute to the memory of the witty, undisciplined ' Borstal Boy' and the house was soon sold out; and more was to be learned about Behan from a late-night show at the same theatre in which Ulick O'Connor, solo and relaxed, discoursed on Brendan's origins, the Dubliners of his day, his terrible grandmother who made him drunk on whiskey at the age of six, his serious application to the study of Gaelic in youth and the beauty of his writing in Irish — in which language The Hostage was originally written. The speaker's reflections on his countrymen in general tended to the conclusion that if there is such a thing as national character, the Irish have it.
Thomas Murphy's new play at the Abbey, The White House, showed how very much the John F. Kennedy charisma meant to Ireland. Like Behan, the President did not achieve very much, but what to them is mere achievement compared to promise and the might-havebeen? The White House of the title is a small-town pub at the present time, containing a collection of humdrum failures, drawn with sympathetic accuracy. There is no action and the actors have to sit drinking Guinness for an hour and exchanging jokes and malicious jabs. The second half is set nine years earlier and the dominant character is J.J.,' the landlord of The White House, who was only referred to as a drinker in the first scene. Dan O'Herlihy presented him as a youngish man, with a close resemblance to the late President, enthusiastically planning a bright future for his property and the little town. News of the assassination shocks the community and ends the play.
Prisoner of the Crown by two American writers, Richard S. Stockton and Richard T. Herd, had been running at the Abbey since February 15, but it was kept on as festival fare during the first week. The time is June 9, 1916, and the jury is deliberating after the trial of Sir Roger Casement. The twelve jurors each take other parts — some as many as six — without leaving the stage because, unreasonably, the action flits about in time and place to illustrate incidents in the past not always relevant to the question. Humour is introduced fictionally, but knowledge of the whole affair is necessary for understanding the play, which is reminiscent of Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday.
At the Gaiety we had Ray McAnally's Hamlet, Prince of Ireland, which was, of course, Shakespeare's tragedy and, save that Ireland was substituted for Denmark (surely not for the sake of the laugh which came when the rottenness of the state was alleged), it was a straight performance with cuts but no gimmicks. Donal McCann was a rough, thick-set prince who in moments of whimsicality affected a funny walk. Royalty's wooden egg-cups looked inadequate for drinking purposes.
In The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare, at Olympia, we were given a farcical satire on American values in which characters behaved and talked like zanies. Niall Toibin played an unsuccessful songwriter who had made up his mind to leave his wife and ended by strangling her.
The 'in' play, not to be missed, was Revival, by Tom Gallacher (author of Mr Joyce is leaving Paris) at the Eblana. This time Ibsen's The Master Builder was given the treatment, with some Pirandellian comedy and a glance at Coward's Blithe Spirit. Tony Doyle scored playing three distinct 'doctors ' — on a scientologist! The play is coming to London.
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