Review A Skull in Connemara: Nottingham Playhouse

Make no bones about it - this production of A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh at Nottingham Playhouse is a bloody cracking play. Directed by Fiona Buffini it allows for plenty of slow burning craic in the first half and really steps up the drunken murderous pace in the second. It is also such a wonderful story with more twists and turns than a shattered pelvis bone that this reviewer feels acutely spoiler shy.

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.

 

Credit for the feel of the show should also be given to lighting designer Ian Scott, sound designer: Adam P MCready and fight director Philip D'Orleans.

 

Runs at Nottingham Playhouse until 6th June 2015

Review originally written for The Public Reviews website May 27th 2015

Nottingham Playhouse: Time and The Conways review

Quite often in a theatre review the set, the lighting and the sound get the briefest of mentions in roughly the fourth paragraph down. It is almost as if, amongst the acting talent, they only had a marginal existence. Not so in this review. The set of 'Time and The Conways' at Nottingham Playhouse is one of the best and most inventive of sets I have ever seen and enhanced beyond measure by top quality lighting and sound.

The set for 'Time and The Conways' is that of a side room in the aristocratic household of the Conway family initially in 1919. To the fore are a variety of chairs and a large lamp on a stand with a medium sized chandelier hovering mid stage. A party is taking place off stage. The characters are all having a jolly time dressing up for a game of charades. Through these games we get a glimpse into the relationships. As the first act unfolds the set comes into its own. The space where a wall might be is like a veil of diluted memories, shimmering with ghosts of the past as they appear and disappear; the recently dead Mr Conway floats on and off, phantom soldiers stare into the void and an other worldly waltz floats by. The whole of the space where these things take place feels and looks like another semi solid spectral dimension associated with memories. The set designer is Madeleine Girling, winner of the Lord Williams Memorial prize for design in 2012 and the winner of the Linbury Prize for Stage Design 2013 for her speculative design work and model of 'Time and The Conways' in collaboration with Nottingham Playhouse.

The wonderfully atmospheric lighting is designed and produced by Mark Jonathan -especially good at the end of each act as we see time shifting back and forth. It is due to the talent of sound designer Drew Baumohl that we sincerely believe that there is a party going on side stage, unobtrusive but very evident and really gives the feeling that there is a world hell bent on having fun in the main house. The musical director is Stefan Bednarczyk.

Director Fiona Buffini, in her first directorial role at Nottingham Playhouse, makes J.B Priestley's brilliant play shine, diminish, sparkle and glow with her tight and fast moving directorial control. Throughout there is an almost tangible feeling of an atmosphere of another age. The whole of her ten strong, terrific cast, plus supernumeraries, have total commitment to getting the two historical periods spot on and capture well the fine nuances of the ageing personalties of this crumbling and disparate family and their difficult relationships with each other. It is Priestley's theatrical genius that allows us to see them throughout two decades of British history and to revisit the earlier post World War One period again for a second viewing.

Louise Jameson as Mrs Conway portrays her flawed character to perfection, from the fun loving matriarch of 1919 to the embittered woman in denial of her flaws and the consequences of her actions to the family unit. The theme for the play asks 'how strong are family ties?' It may also ask 'how strongly are the women valued in this story?' My answer would be – not very much. Even from the viewpoint of their own sex there is constant resentment and belittlement of relationships and artistic talent. Priestley's strength is in his subtle creation of these characters and his understanding of their complex psychologies.

Scott Turnbull turns his character, the shy and awkward Ernest Beevers from sympathetic in the first act to downright bitter and menacing in the second in a brilliantly understated performance and Rosie Jones shines as the eternally optimistic but ultimately tragic Carol Conway.

Pascale Burgess is totally believable as Madge the dedicated school teacher who finds herself despairing of her family and willing to pay the price of cutting herself off forever.

The whole cast present a fluid mix of very truthful human beings and work well within the abstract nature of the set. Despite the serious nature of this tragic story Priestly cleverly weaves in plenty of laughs that are enjoyed by the most appreciative Nottingham Playhouse audience. For high quality regional theatre I cannot recommend this gripping and thought provoking production highly enough.

Time and The Conways runs at Nottingham Playhouse from 12th - 27th September 2014

Photos: Copyright. Robert Day

Review originally written for The Public Reviews 17th September 2014