The moody set of a lonely cottage interior sitting among the darkening misty coastal hills of rural Ireland is superbly created by award winning designer Madeleine Girling. The house is finely detailed even to the point of having a fire burning in the grate and smoke rising from the chimney above. Girling also takes us to a bleak graveyard where the hero Mick (Ged McKenna) digs up human bones from the graves to make room for more bodies. This is well realised with soil coming up by the spade full and we hear a chilling cracking sound as the flimsy coffins are broken into.
A Skull in Connemara
is a short play at under two
hours.The scripting is super economic, genuinely funny and like
McDonagh's other plays and film In Bruges
it has a poetic stream of pitch black tragic comedy running through
it. There is even a 'gobshite's glossary' in the programme explaining
some of the Irish slang and swear words! On a serious note the play
touches upon the loneliness, regret and remorse of the main character
Mick Dowd who often sits alone in his cottage knocking back a potent
Irish spirit made from fermented potatoes called Poteen. Getting
drunk is Mick's way of dealing with the death of his wife Oona who
was killed in a car crash seven years ago. Rumours about the true
cause of her death have been a constant source of malign gossip in
the local community. Did Mick's drunk driving kill her or was her
death deliberate? It is a grave matter for all. What will they find
when they dig up her bones? Is there some devilish Skulduggery going
on in Connemara?
Peopled with just four actors McDonagh's play gives plenty of scope for characterisation and given that most of the time the majority of them are fall down wobbly from the Poteen they all do a brilliant job of keeping the drunken scenes real. As Mick Dowd, actor Ged McKenna pulls out all the stops (and bones) with a solid and very believable performance as the duplicitous widower. The only woman in the play is the strangely named Maryjohnny and her cunning and cadging nature is terrifically drawn out with an understated and grubby clothed presentation by actress Paddy Glynn.
Diversely motivated brothers Thomas and Mairtin (Paul Carroll and Rhys Dunlop) complete the foursome. Thomas is the local Garda who dreams of being a great police detective but fails to see the blindingly obvious criminal scenes in front of him. The dim cop is comically realised by Carroll but even his comedy has a devilishly strong vein of secret cruelty – this in a man that is supposed to represent the law abiding side of their community.
On
the opposite side of the law there is naughty boy Mairtin - a
cunning eejit constantly correcting his potty mouth in front of
Granny Maryjohnny. Dunlop brings great energy to Mairtin's quasi
likeable character and is brilliantly funny in every one of his
entrances – especially the unexpected one. In fact that
is what is so delightful about this rarely performed play – the
aspects of the unexpected.
A Skull in Connemara
abounds with deceptively simple characters and situations that draw
you into their world almost as a smugly amused observer. Then just as
you are toasting your toes by the lovely warm cottage fire someone
throws a proverbial firework into the flames and everything you
expected to happen explodes unexpectedly around you! Head to
Nottingham Playhouse to see this beauty of a pitch black Irish comedy
while you can. Oh and there's a biteen of swearing, so there is now.
Runs at Nottingham Playhouse until 6th June 2015
Review originally written for The Public Reviews website May 27th 2015
Review originally written for The Public Reviews website May 27th 2015
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