Stage

IT MAY be hard to explain, but we’ve all witnessed great acting – in our favourite movie, play or television programme (or simply when your lover claims that she, or he didn’t betray you, despite the fact that you caught them in the act).

But what happens when you are an actor and the staggeringly great performances are coming from your fellow actors, producing the kind of play that compels you to watch from the wings when you’re not actually out there on stage, amid all the magic?

This, more or less, is what’s happening most nights during the Barrabas production of The Whiteheaded Boy which is being presented at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre until August 29th, incuding Sundays!

Then again, some would suggest that Lennox Robinson’s play – “well made” or otherwise – is relatively slight, somewhat out-dated and basically brought to life only by the performances. Not so, says actor Veronica Coburn.

“I would say that the overall concept of the production, as devised by Gerry Stembridge, gives a very old, traditional Irish play, a whole new life,” she maintains. “When we read the play for the first time we just roared with laughter. It was like a little gift being give to us, because there is such humour and social observation in it that it is remarkable. Now maybe the fact that the characters are not played by a cast of twelve but by just four of us – myself, Louis Lovett, Mikel Murfi and Raymond Keane – does add another layer to it, though that’s more for other people to say, I guess.”

And that is exactly what critics and theatre-goers alike have been saying. In technical terms this is a tour-de-force, with individual actors in The Whiteheaded Boy, on occasion, managing three-way conversations with themselves! And what about the claim that when not on stage, actors watch the show from the wings?

“The three of us are on all the time, so we don’t get a chance to watch it from anywhere,” Veronica responds, laughing. “But Louis, who plays the title role and doesn’t come on stage ’til late in the proceedings, did, at one point, get tired of trying to watch if from stage left and actually booked a seat in Andrew’s Lane, middle row, to see the show himself! But it is a marvellous play to act in, because it is so intense. And you have to sustain that intensity, which makes every show a challenge and a delight.”

The play deals with the tale of one family’s attempt to rid themselves of a waster in their midst, who they conspire to send off to Canada. Not surprisingly, given the critical and public success of the play it is rumoured that it may soon open in New York, staged by The Brooklyn Academy of Music, which previously brought Sebastian Barry’s The Steward of Christendom to the Big Apple.

“At this moment, we have more than just that one offer on the table, including another one from The Kennedy Centre,” Veronica confirms. “We’ve yet to sign a deal, though things are looking good! And being Irish, culturally speaking, does seem to be an advantage these days, so that will help to a degree.”

Underpinning Veronica’s apparent reserve on this subject is her memory of those times when “it was only when an Irish play did open in New York, or London that people finally would say it was a success.” This is definitely not how she reads the situation these days.

“On the contrary,” she asserts. “That whole attitude, back then, seemed to tap into our national sense of inferiority. Whereas these days, once a play is successful here in Dublin that’s just as credible as if it makes it in London or New York – if not more credible, if it is an Irish play, and Irish production, that’s been conceived and created in this country.

“That’s more how I’d regard any American production of The Whiteheaded Boy, if it happens. Or, let’s say, when it happens!”

If you love great acting, and even anarchy in terms of theatre, you must see The Whiteheaded Boy.