Spring Theatre Opens With A Bang

Sligo Drama Circle’s first offering for the newly-opened Spring Season of Plays in the Town Hall, Sligo, is Jean Paul Sartre’s “Men Without Shadows”. And it certainly got the new season off with a flourish. We entered the theatre to find ourselves enmeshed in a prison atmosphere where the authorities were just as much “the men behind the wire” as their prisoners. From then until the end we were bombarded with power – power in the writing, power in the acting and, above all, power in the production.

Liam Mc Kinney, who directed, has cleverly taken Sartre’s play out of its Second World War French setting and re-located it in any revolutionary situation at any time. It could be Chile or Cuba, it could be the Tuppermaros or the Provos, it could be about the Paras or the US Marines. But it told more tellingly than a thousand television newsreels the effect of the violence on both the capturer and the captured – indeed the conflict between those in authority is greater amongst themselves than is their clash with the rebels while the same situation holds in reverse for the revolutionaries.

There are some ironic, if violent, aspects of this brought out in the play as when one prisoner kills himself rather than talk to his inquisitors while another is killed by his own comrade because they feared that he would betray them. Thus are those in power and those in rebellion shown clearly to be the opposite sides of the same coin. This was Mc Kinney at his brilliant best – doing full justice to Sartre’s magnificent creation. If there is to be any objections to his production, it is that it almost succeeds too well and involves and absorbs the audience to the maximum extent. He is also responsible for the set design which is an ingenious split set with multi-level compartments. The confined and caging effect from this heightens the tension throughout and helps to keep the audience on the edge of the seat.

This is a really strong cast – powerful is the word that keeps cropping into my mind. Maria Mc Dermottroe, the only female part, gives a performance of sheer power and beauty throughout. Sligo is indeed fortunate in having a young actress of her talent in its midst. Lionel Gallagher plays her brother with a rare intensity and integrity and his death scene is splendidly handled. As the other prisoners, Columb Mc Bride and Michael Kilcoyne display great strength and passion while newcomer Tony Wehrly almost steals the show in places from the older hands around him. To complete the “rebel” side Barney O’ Reilly plays the revolutionary leader with the right mixture of authority and weakness and somehow manages to both belong to and yet remain apart from his cell-mates. But it is collectively that this group scores – a moving example of unity in diversity.

Manus Shields gives an outstanding performance as the Commander of the Post – a human being who has been brutalised by his job, tortured by his own torturing but unable to do anything about it. It is the best thing he has given us. Robert Burnside makes his debut in a Drama Circle role as the really sinister figure behind the campaign of brutality. He is the one person who seems to enjoy violence for its own sake, but despite this he succeeds in making us see the human being behind it all and we tend to hate the system which made him that way more than we hate him. This is a well thought out and (no pun intended) well-executed performance.

The third of the officer class is newcomer Martin Doohan whose role is that of highlighting the characters of Andrews (Manus Shields) and Locket (Robert Burnside). In this he succeeds admirably and at the same time he never loses his individual identity. John Caheny and Eddie O’ Reilly are terrifyingly realistic in their roles as the Para-type soldiers. They could have stepped directly from our televisions screens from the latest riot situation in the latest trouble spot. If this seems to be in the nature of a eulogy and an exercise in the use of superlatives, don’t just believe me – go and see for yourself before the week is out. And while you are there think of the backstage workers – Joan Gallagher’s costumes, Aidan Sexton’s lighting, John Mc Gettrick’s sets, John Burns and Jimmy Barr’s sounds, Anne Johnston’s stage management, and you will see that it adds up to an exciting night’s theatre.

from The Sligo Champion, March 1st, 1974