DruidO’Casey – one day, three plays, 18 actors, 45 characters, and 375 minutes of great theatre (Druid at Lyric Theatre until 19 August)

One of my English teachers at school – Philip Orr – staged a Sean O’Casey play every other year in the amphitheatre style assembly hall. We sat on the hard wooden benches, peering down at the open plan set on a wingless stage, immersed in a foreign time and an unfamiliar place that the history lessons in the nearby classrooms didn’t cover.

On Saturday I got to see all three plays from O’Casey’s ‘Dublin’ trilogy once more, in a glorious act of endurance theatre dubbed DruidO’Casey that stretched from lunchtime (The Plough and the Stars) through afternoon coffee (The Shadow of a Gunman) to evening (Juno and the Paycock). Six hours fifteen minutes of drama a nine-and-a-half-hour visit to the Lyric Theatre. They’re performed in order of the timeframe in which they were set, rather than the order of writing (Shadow, Juno, Plough).

The experience is akin to binge-watching a boxset or watching a film franchise back-to-back … except there’s no pause button, and liquid intake needs to be planned carefully along with strategic bladder emptying. A traditional evening performance of a play might be followed by conversation in the car on the way home and a night in bed disturbed by your brain mulling over the meaning of the on-stage action. While the time for reflection is curtailed by the arrival of the next performance, you get a real sense of the time and place, a broad understanding of the competing moods and motivations, and an appreciation for O’Casey’s traits as a playwright.

We titter and giggle at the dialogue and some of the dramatic situations, at a safe centenary distance from the events being described. A very different reaction to the original staging, fictionalising history sometimes not even ten years in the past. O’Casey’s take on people’s motivations and their loyalties is unflinching, largely challenging, often comic and always complex.

About three quarters of the company of actors appear in each play. Francis O’Connor’s hinged set wraps around the stage, bending to each scene of each play, full of surprises. Any number of familiar pieces of the set together with individual props are reused across the three plays.

O’Casey’s pen was undoubtedly sharp, but director Garry Hynes lifts the words off the page and propels them out towards the audience through the cast with much wit and vigour. The accents are broad enough that you’ll notice when your ear has tuned in after ten minutes and less dialogue is being missed.

The Plough and the Stars sets the pace (hurried) and the political scene. It’s 1916 and Dublin is on the brink of rebellion. An increasing use of red in costumes (Francis O’Connor) foretells the coming death toll. Liam Heslin and Sophie Lenglinger anchor much of the action as the newlyweds Jack and Nora Clitheroe.

Of the triptych of plays, The Shadow of the Gunman is my favourite. It’s probably the simplest, based in a single location with a comedy door that reveals a succession of unwelcome, larger than life characters. Over a snappy 90 minutes with no interval, a great air of mystery is built up around Donal Davoren (Marty Rea). His flirtatious encounter with Minnie Powell (played by the enchanting Caitríona Ennis) sets up the later jeopardy. Sean Kearns embraces Adolphus Grigson’s outing as an Orangeman with a slick choreography which keeps finding new movements to ramp up the hilarity. When the room is searched, its contents are flung around, with cans of food chaotically rolling around the stage. The rising moon creates beautiful visual. (Much more satisfying than the descending satellite in a previous Abbey/Lyric production.) The staircase reveal is a lovely touch. (The Shadow of the Gunman is the only show that isn’t sold out – so grab matinee tickets for Wednesday or Friday before you miss it.)

By 8pm, the auditorium was still completely full as we got our first peek at the third play’s set. Many in the audience had travelled much further than usual to attend a Lyric production. Juno and the Paycock is a very different beast to the two that have gone before. Much more character-based than political commentary. The work-shy ‘Captain’ Jack Boyle (Rory Nolan) and his mucker Joxer (Aaron Monaghan) are feeling the heat from Juno Boyle (Hilda Fay) who has the measure of nearly everyone who comes in through her front door. Daughter Mary (Zara Devlin) has the best of her Mum’s spirit, with the added learning of not being a pushover.

“It’s better to be a coward than a corpse” explains the Captain. Different times to The Plough and the Stars. The Boyle’s hand to mouth existence is disturbed, and their tenement flat is uplifted, by news of an unexpected inheritance. This good fortune leads, of course, to their downfall.

O’Casey is fond of letting his working class characters mispronounce long words. It’s funny though a bit petty. His other tell is the repeated use of songs in his plays. Mary and Juno’s duet of Home to Our Mountains is by far the most unexpected and moving of the day.

In the final scene of the day, a door is once again key to the action, delightfully mirroring the first scene in which a door is being fixed. It’s a fitting end to a day-long cycle of plays that have captivated and entertained.

While it’s hard to imagine the mechanics of one director rehearsing three plays across 18 actors and 45 characters, the end result is sublime. The total familiarity with the work is obvious, particularly as the cast gently roll into some of the back and forth confrontations without a hint of forced staccato delivery. The quality of the acting and direction is second to none. The set works hard too, along with the lighting (James F. Ingalls) which is precise without ever drawing attention to itself. Bringing all that together with the movement and the sound design creates a total experience that wows. Druid Theatre are surely Ireland’s equivalent of Schaubühne.

The cycle of plays began its run in Galway, and it leaves Belfast’s Lyric Theatre on 19 August to head to Dublin (sold out), New York and Michigan.

Photo credit: Ros Kavanagh

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