A HOST of Irish stars are currently bringing one of the classic plays of their homeland to life in London.
John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World opened on the National Theatre’s Lyttelton Stage last week.
Written in 1907 and set on the rugged west coast of Ireland, the story follows a young man who becomes a local hero in a rural village when he arrives there telling stories of having killed his father.
The National Theatre’s revival, which is directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, stays true to Synge’s original.
Katie Davenport’s set design immediately transports you to the exposed craggy landscape of rural Ireland.
Katie Davenport's set transports you to the rugged west of Ireland in The Playboy of the Western World (Pics: Marc Brenner)The action plays out in a barn-like structure that serves as the local bar, but the rushes and the grey skies outside are always in view - looming as a cautionary backdrop to the scandal that is unfolding before us.
So effective is the set design that you can nearly feel a chill in the air as the scenes play out, and you are immersed in a sense of being back in olden day Ireland from the outset.
The play begins with a bar scene where the Irish brogue is so thick among the patrons that anyone who hasn’t an Irish background may struggle to decipher what’s being said.
Nicola Coughlan and Éanna Hardwicke (Pic Marc Brenner)Thankfully that won’t impact their enjoyment of what is before them, and the vibrancy and excitement of the production cranks up by several notches with the arrival of its celebrity-laden lead cast.
Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, a Galway girl herself, so no stranger to the call of the west, proves a brilliant lead as the bolshy, yet needy, Pegeen Mike.
It is her bar that young Christy Moore – played by the excellent Éanna Hardwick – stumbles into as he attempts to outrun his past and his foul deed.
Hardwick gives his all to this performance as Synge’s tragic anti-hero, pulling the audience along with him and making it hard work to decide whether young Mr Mahon is a victim or a villain.
Éanna Hardwicke plays Christy Mahon (Pic: Marc Brenner)Either way, he and Pegeen strike up an instant connection - with Christy’s father-killing, bad boy ways only serving to increase her attraction to him.
Coughlan and Hardwick more than do justice to their roles, with a palpable sense of the yearning between them soon filling the room.
In no time at all Pegeen has discarded her plans to wed suitor Shawn Keogh – played by the hilariously well-timed Marty Rea - to put all her eggs in the father-killer’s basket.
But she is not the only one.
Within hours of Christy’s arrival, news of the new single man in town has spread like wildfire through the village and all the available women make a beeline to the door of Pegeen Mike’s bar.
Among them is the superb Siobhán McSweeney, who, as the lustful Widow Quin, would appear the least likely to gain the attention of young Christy, but is in fact the most overtly up for the challenge.
Clad in tight leather, with regular skirt-hitching and leg-raising, the Widow Quin is on a mission to get what she can from the situation that has presented itself to this tight-knit community.
If not love and a toy boy, then it will be some form of compensation for moving him out of town from those who wish to see the back of him.
Éanna Hardwicke. and Siobhán McSweeney (Pic: Marc Brenner)Some of the best scenes of this production feature Coughlan and McSweeney, who are well-known to each other through their past work on Derry Girls, as they face off over the young eligible man in their midst.
The pair are as well matched here as they were in their Derry past life, and we watch on with genuine delight as their battle grows to epic proportions.
Ultimately there is as much tragedy as there is humour in this production, but it is captivating viewing and well worth a visit while it is in town.
The Playboy of the Western World runs at the Lyttelton Theatre until February 26. For tickets click here.
