The Big Fellah packs a punch at the Royal and Derngate
Thought-provoking new play about a sensative subject
RICHARD Bean's disturbing new play about the Irish Troubles makes uncomfortable viewing - especially if you're English. At some point it offends just about everyone – the Catholics, the Irish, the English and the Americans before inevitably taking a pop at the Muslims.
But The Big Fellah, which opened at the Royal & Derngate on Tuesday, doesn't duck the big issues – and nothing is bigger than nearly 1,000 years of fighting between the English and Northern Irish and the bombing of the Twin Towers in New York.
It's a powerfully written piece which is prevented from being a turgid polemic on the rights and wrongs of British rule in Northern Ireland by the dialogue given to one of its key characters. It's a very funny and thought-provoking script.
The story, covering three decades, is set among New York's Irish community. Each year descendants from the "mother country" hold St Patrick's Day parades when thousands of dollars are raised to buy guns for the IRA in the fight for home rule.
Two iconic moments in history define its parameters – Bloody Sunday, in 1972, when British troops gunned down 14 civilians, and September 11, 2001 when a new wave of terrorism suddenly made the IRA unfashionable.
IRA foot soldier Ruairi O'Drisceoil is on the run and is using the brownstone home of an NY fireman and sympathiser as a safe-house.
There are two things members of the IRA dread – a posting to Canada where they will be mothballed – or a deadly one-way posting to Mexico.
Ruairi defies the odds to remain in the Big Apple and we follow his life through the years.
It's a tale of loyalty, disillusionment and betrayal seen through the eyes of Ruairi, his handler, David Costello (a Mr Fixit known to all as The Big Fellah) and fireman Michael Doyle.
Finbar Lynch is charismatic as Costello, a slight man who enjoys the mantle of power and who runs operations in the city for the terrorist organisation.
His outward appearance as a successful businessman, fund-raiser and a respectable family man belies his inner turmoil.
Rory Keenan is engaging as O'Drisceoil and it's his witty banter which lightens the story.
When he first meets the taciturn Doyle he asks: "Do you have a sister called Mary?" No, says the reserved fireman. "Then you're not Irish then!"
He's later asked to do an interview with a journalist and remarks: "I've been talking b******* for years. I'm not sure I'm ready to step up!"
And later he admits: "I like being in the IRA but if there's one thing I'd change it's all the ****ing killing!"
There's a menacing cameo by Fred Ridgeway as IRA enforcer Frank McArdle who plays out a disturbing scene that totally wrong-foots the audience. One minute you're laughing at the typically Irish antics revealing the fate of wonder-horse Shergar and the next witnessing a brutal interrogation.
It's a brave choice of subject matter expertly handled by veteran theatre director Max Stafford Clark and one which will keep you pondering its story long after the curtain's fallen.
The Big Fellah runs on the Royal stage until Saturday. It will be at, The Lyric, Hammersmith from September 21 to October 16, the Oxford Playhouse from October 19-23 and at the Birmingham Rep Theatre from November 10-13.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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