Moll Is Packing Them In At The Hawk’s Well Theatre

Sligo Drama Circle continue to attract large audiences to the Hawk’s Well with their production of “Moll” which concludes this Saturday night. Their autumn staging of John B. Keane’s hit comedy has been filling seats at the Temple Street venue since it opened on Tuesday night. The play is set in a typically rural Irish presbytery in the 1970s where the Parish Priest, Canon Pratt, and his two curates, Fr. Brest and Fr. Loran, reside. With more than a passing resemblance to the “Fr. Ted” TV series, this timeless comedy promises a night filled with laughter.

The previous housekeeper has passed away and the priests have to find a new incumbent. This is no easy task as Fr. Brest remarks that “when a presbytery gets a new housekeeper it becomes like a country that gets a change of government or like a family that gets a new stepmother”.

After Moll Kettle is given the job, much to the dismay of Fr. Brest, life in the presbytery will never be the same again. Moll knows how to play the power game and massages both the ego and the appetite of the Canon, while at the same time starving and ostracising the two curates, whom she treats like spoiled schoolboys. She tells the Canon that they are a “pure disgrace” and that they would “eat you out of house and home instead of fasting and abstaining like the saints and martyrs”.

However, it’s Moll’s suggestion of starting Bingo to fund the new school that upsets the curates enough to do some investigating into Moll’s past and to consider pleading their case to the Bishop. When the Bishop arrives to open the new school, the curates have their chance to get rid of what Fr. Brest refers to as “the monster in our midst”.

Director Damien Quinn has assembled an experienced cast for “Moll” to follow up on the Drama Circle’s huge summer success with “Peg O’ My Heart”. Angela Maguire plays the central character of Moll; Gerry Ryan plays Canon Pratt and Micki Murray and Brian Mc Gauran play the parts of the curates, Fr. Brest and Fr. Loran. These are backed up by Máire Hynes, Sally Browne, Lionel Gallagher and Hugh O’ Neill who all make comedic cameo roles. Interestingly, Lionel Gallagher’s first performance with Sligo Drama Circle dates back to 1959.

“MOLL” runs at the Hawk’s Well Theatre from Tuesday November 19th to Saturday November 23rd nightly at 8pm. Tickets are available from the Hawk’s Well Theatre Box Office on (071) 916 1518 priced at €15 (€13 concessions & OAP’s). There is a special rate of €10 per ticket for groups of ten or more. There is also a special family ticket of €50 for two adults and two children. Discounted tickets can be purchased over the phone or in person at the Hawk’s Well Theatre. All other tickets can also be booked online at www.hawkswell.com

from The Sligo Weekender, November 21st, 2013