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by Lady Augusta Gregory, directed by Micheline Chevrier

Shaw Festival, Court House Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

July 7-October 6, 2007

"Two Miniature Masterpieces"

No one can study the history of modern Irish literature without encountering the name of Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932).  She was a playwright, historian, folklorist, editor, translator and patron of the arts.  She encouraged the Irish National Theatre movement that led to the founding of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.  When it opened in 1904 one of her plays, “Spreading the News” was on its first playbill and she remained an artistic director of what became Ireland national theatre until her death. 

We hear so much about her and her influence, we owe a debt of gratitude to the Shaw Festival to have given us a chance at last to see two of her most popular one-act plays--“The Rising of the Moon” (1907) and “Spreading the News” (1904).  The Festival gives them the collective title “The Kiltartan Comedies” after the barony where Lady Gregory’s estate was situated.  The two works are miniature masterpieces of the genre presented as a lunchtime show.  Anyone interested in Irish literature, writing by women or simply a pleasant hour of entertainment should not miss them.

The first play is set by the quays in Galway where a nameless police sergeant and two policemen are looking for a dangerous Irish Nationalist who they believe will try to escape by boat that night.  As the two policemen go off to paste up “Wanted” posters, the sergeant encounters a raggedy ballad-seller, who points out how the sergeant and the criminal, who have similar backgrounds, might easily have been in each other’s shoes if circumstances had been different. 

The second play is set in the market square of the village of Cloon by the stand of the deaf apple-seller Mrs. Tarpey.  It is basically as cleverly dramatization of the game of “Gossip”.  Bartley Fallon, obsessed with his propensity for bad luck, accidentally knocks over his wife’s shopping basket causing an argument.  Jack Smith comes by but rushes off to his field without taking his pitchfork.  Mrs. Fallon urges Bartley to go away and take Smith’s pitchfork up to him.  Villagers seeing Bartley running after Jack with a pitchfork immediately assume the worst and report that he has committed murder.  The case is soon brought before an English magistrate more familiar with life in the Andaman Islands than in Ireland.

The two plays make an excellent double-bill and director Micheline Chevrier has helped tie them together with the singing of Irish ballads.  Though “Spreading the News” is the livelier work, “The Rising of the Moon”, which takes its title from an Irish ballad of rebellion, receives the best production.  Both Douglas E. Hughes as the Sergeant and Patrick McManus as the Ragged Man give finely detailed, understated performances.  It’s as much fun to watch how skillfully McManus’s character wins the Sergeant over to his point of view as it is to see how Hughes’s character struggle between is role of upholder of the law and his private sympathies.  Harry Judge and Andrew Bunker do fine work in the smaller roles of the two policemen.

“Spreading the News” would benefit from the understated acting of “The Rising of the Moon” along with more precise direction.  Douglas E. Hughes becomes more of a stereotype as the English magistrate, and so does Mary Haney as the ancient Mrs. Tarpey.  Guy Bannerman, however, is very funny as Bartley Fallon, a man whose expectations that nothing will go right in his life become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Brigitte Robinson is in fine form as the haughty Mrs. Tully and Tara Rosling shows her flair for comedy as Mrs. Fallon, whom you think will be the most sensible person in the play until events prove otherwise.  Strangely, the cast’s Irish accents are not all up to speed with Jonathan Gould as James Ryan not fitting in at all.

Despite this, the play is still quite enjoyable and the two together showcase the Irish ability to finding humour in morbid situations.  Deeter Schurig’s design is very simple with a large circular opening at the back suggesting a full moon in the first play and, covered with a curtain, representing a pastoral landscape.  Julia Vandergraaf’s lighting is especially effective in the first play in suggesting a potentially danger-filled night.  Lady Gregory wrote nineteen original plays and this tasty sampler whets one’s appetite for more.       

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Jeff Meadows, Jonathan Gould and Brigitte Robinson in Spreading the News.

©Michael Cooper.