How it’s Irish: Two By Synge, an Irish playwright, set in Ireland
How it’s NY – The Irish Rep is in Chelsea
by Philomena Connors
If you’re looking to be swept off to 1800’s Ireland and only have a short amount of time, then check out the Irish Repertory Theater’s wonderful renditions of two of Synge’s short plays, The Tinker’s Wedding and In the Shadow of the Glen.
Synge was Irish gentry who took an interest in Irish culture. He was friends with Yeats and Lady Gregory and spent some time in the Aran Islands to educate himself on rural Irish people. The language and people in these plays are rough and aggressive. He was lambasted for it during his lifetime, when the educated classes of the time didn’t want to accept that people spoke or behaved that way.
Perhaps to shine light on this, Sean Gormley’s character, the priest in The Tinker’s Wedding, snootily mentions one of his most challenging tasks is to say mass for rural people – ‘rural’ spoken almost through his nose with his eyes averted to the ground in disgust.
“… the priest [] snootily mentions one of his most challenging tasks is to say mass for rural people – ‘rural’ spoken almost through his nose with his eyes averted to the ground in disgust.”
I took a friend to this evening of entertainment and she is a student of Irish language and interested in the culture and particularly in Synge. Here were her thoughts. “I at first did not understand why the Rep chose to couple The Glen with the Tinker’s Wedding. Now I understand it was a clever choice [as I think] about both the similarities, e.g. the dissatisfied central female character, and women losing their beauty, aging without teeth or hair in or on their heads. And then the central contrast between them…that Sara, the tinker outside settled society desperately wants to be married while Nora, the peasant, desperately seeking to leave a loveless marriage but then again both were seeking a dream. Synge shows such a humane understanding of women trapped in the cruel mores and customs of old Ireland that he speaks with a modern voice.”
As my friend so astutely said, the women had all the juicy roles in these plays. John Keating, Irish Rep Company Member, sadly had very few lines in his roles as he is a joy to watch. Jo Kinsella is perfectly cast in the dual roles of feisty Irish women. Terry Donnelly portrays the conniving Mary to perfection in The Tinker’s Wedding. New face Ciaran Dowling who has a wonderful singing voice and a decent Irish accent which likely only an Irish ear could hear a bit of London English coming from time to time.
But did I mention the great tunes? Yes, there’s music at the beginning and between the plays, which is a really nice addition by the director, Charlotte Moore. Come for tunes, the language, the stories, or simply to enjoy live theater after a long hiatus.
