Politics is the Backcloth for Finborough Theatre's On McQuillan's Hill

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Liz Vercoe reviews a family drama set in rural Ulster at the end of The Troubles

Pics by Kevin Murphy

Fussing at her side is Mrs Tymelly (names that rhyme with malign and timely are worthy of Samuel Beckett!) the keeper of the hall's keys.

Portraying both reliable rock and garrulous old gossip, Helena Bereen reprises the role she created for the play's first outing, in Belfast, back in 2000.

 

Julie Maguire as Theresa and Helen Bereen as Mrs Tymelly

It's equally clear from this initial scene setting that the hall, which has been at the heart of village life for just about ever, is to be handed over to an unknown new owner on the morrow and also that Theresa wants to know who her mother is. Oh, and bye the bye her auntie Loretta is a money-grabbing slut, according to her grandmother.

Playwright Joseph Crilly, who died by suicide aged 45, in 2017, shows just how idiotically human beings can behave when inflamed by a cause ... or sex ... or making sex a cause. Twenty years on the play still resonates, for alongside concerns about Northern Ireland and violence are contemporary worries about any type of radicalisation as well as child abuse.

Under the direction of Jonathan Harden, Crilly's characters let their mouths run away with them, saying what they'd like to true as much as what is real, while anything unpalatable festers in the shadows of their minds. A clue to the outcome is the portrait of republican Robert Emmett hanging on the hall wall. Despite the mismanagement, misjudgement and chaos of his independence uprising against George lll, because of sheer passion and his eloquence, after his execution he emerged a hero and the embodiment of the romantic notion of Irish lost causes.

"Ireland Free" is the refrain taken up by party pooper Fra (Johnny Vivash) when he finally, drunkenly, appears at the hall. Stubbly, paunchy and wearing ex-con regulation tracksuit bottoms, he's an H-block veteran who also took a bullet in his leg.  As a result no one knows if he's a republican hero or a double-crossing traitor warned off by the provos. He's proud to have kept completely shtum over republican secrets but now, following "the end of the war", is being told by life-long pal Dessie it was pointless anyway. Kevin Murphy is excellent as the local business owner with a strong survival instinct. Fra swears he's the real deal, the hard man, to anyone who will listen, but he has other secrets to hide.

This is where too much is stirred into the plot. It simply can't handle everything from homosexuality, incest, post-natal depression, guilt, and theft, alongside the violent splintering of a village along nationalistic lines. Well, not equally successfully.  But the politics are really the backcloth for this gripping family drama. The strongest and most moving thread is the relationship between Loretta (Gina Costigan), her past flame Ray (Declan Rodgers), who, despite leaving a string of children and abandoned mothers around Europe, is still flexing his reflexive Casanova muscles, and bewildered Theresa.  

Declan Rogers as Ray and Gina Costigan as Loretta

It is Teresa who finally lances the boil of secrets and lies that have blighted her life and, in the process, successfully eases several damaged minds. But too late to let her off Scot, or maybe that should be Ireland, free.  

On McQuillan's Hill runs until 29 February; 2 hours and 15 minutes including 15 minute interval. Tickets online at Finborough Theatre. No booking fees on online, personal or postal bookings. Box Office 01223 357851. (Calls are free. There will be a 5% booking fee.)

February 10, 2020