New play captures humour and heart of 1990s Westmeath

Review by Eilís Ryan

What Mullingar Arts Centre director Seán Lynch described as probably a first for a rural theatre in Ireland happened on Friday and Saturday of last weekend, when the arts centre hosted the Irish première of a new play, Yvonne Heavey’s ‘The Wake of Yer Man’.

Adding to the originality of the event was the fact that it involved a cast drawn from two separate geographic locations – Ireland and Jersey, the now-home of the playwright who penned the piece, Rochfortbridge-born Yvonne Heavey.

The director was Mullingar man Daniel Egerton, and the rehearsals had to be done in the actors’ respective countries until shortly before the première, the Irish team travelled to Jersey and the entire cast were able to finally meet.

The première took place on St Patrick’s night before a full house at the Jersey Arts Centre – and last week, the journey was flipped as the actors from Jersey made their way to Mullingar.

From the Mullingar audience, the reaction was hugely positive, and for the second half in particular, there were peals of laughter as the story gathered pace, and a fascinating dimension was that at one point there were as many as 16 actors on stage.

Set in the 1990s in ‘Derrybeg’ - based on Yvonne’s old Rochfortbridge stomping ground, Derrygreenagh, the play sees three schoolgirl friends attempt to contact the dead. Their mix of bravado and nervous curiosity soon gives way to genuine fear when they appear to succeed, leaving them to grapple with what they believe are the consequences of their tomfoolery.

Thus is opened the door to the eponymous ‘Wake’, a proper Irish-style Rosaries-and-sandwiches send-off as the deceased lies in an open coffin in the front room.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a programme available and thus we’re in difficulty in assigning – quite literally - full credit where credit is due. That said, praise is due all round. This was a play with a lot of rapid-fire action and dialogue, where timing and tone were important, and everyone on stage threw heart and soul into making the play a success.

The teenager, Polly, who was pretty-much on stage for the entire drama, was played with aplomb by Katie Purdue – while accompanying her on the journey from obedient convent-school teens to independent adulthood were the energetic and convincing Alannah Lawless-Looby as Sharon and Hannah Esnouf as Sarah.

Nancy (Elisa Canas) had a lot to do, having had to handle both comedy and pathos and did it well. Maedhbh Hughes, as Nora, was another great comedic character, well-chosen for the role, and Clare Egan hit all the right notes to give a great performance as Bernadette O’Sullivan. Allan Gardner, as the solicitor, Wallace, gave a stand-out performance in what turned into a role requiring a lot of physical activity, given that he found himself having to engage in both fisticuffs and acrobatics.

The play was tweaked considerably between its première in Jersey and the weekend’s performances in Mullingar, and could probably benefit from a little further modification. The second half was stronger than the first, which could possibly be shortened somewhat: the scene in the forest, for example, didn’t really go anywhere. The second half had a lot of hilarious moments, and probably more of the story could be invested in that section as a lot of the action in that act worked well.

The sets were good, and the play was an affectionate look at a recent Ireland where the line between family and community hardly existed; to a time where the rituals that were familiar and accepted seemed as if they were immutable. To pull it together across two countries was a remarkable achievement by a remarkable woman who had a vision, and who has held tenaciously to that vision. We look forward to seeing what comes next.

• Cast visit to Derrygreenagh; see page 11