ARTS The Field reviewed

Brian Dennehy as the Bull McCabe

Field of dreams – and dark thoughts


Daniel Carey

THERE were perhaps five minutes left in Joe Dowling’s production of John B Keane’s ‘The Field’ when a mobile phone rang in the Olympia Theatre last month. Annoying, sure, but sadly, something of an occupational hazard. Yet what happened next was quite extraordinary. The phone was not turned off, but answered by a member of the audience.
All of a sudden, Bull McCabe (played by the veteran American actor Brian Dennehy) was competing not with a ring-tone, but with a woman’s voice. “Hello?” she said twice into her handset before (presumably) being shamed into silence. I’m not sure whether she got out alive.
Going up against ‘The Bull’ is a risky business, as anyone au fait with Keane’s 1965 work tell you. When the field which he rents from local widow Maggie Butler is put up for sale by public auction, he expects to be the only bidder. That’s not how it turns out, however, and bloodshed and a cover-up ensue. Answering a mobile phone may have been the most foolhardy act committed in the presence of Bull McCabe since a certain individual bid £300 for his beloved patch of grass.
Some people not familiar with the stage version might think Dennehy is playing The American, the role taken by Tom Berenger in Jim Sheridan’s 1990 big-screen treatment. But of course, Bull’s rival in the play (first performed in 1965) is not a Yank, but an English-based Galwegian, William Dee, who’s wants to buy the field to pursue a business interest.
No, Dennehy – whom you might remember from such films as the original Rambo movie ‘First Blood’, and from ‘Gorky Park’, ‘Presumed Innocent’ and ‘F/X’ – is Bull McCabe. A part forever now associated with the late Richard Harris, Bull is one of the great bullies of Irish theatre. Dennehy has the physical presence required, but at times he was difficult to understand and too hidden under his hat.
In an entertaining production that’s loyal to Keane, there are some wonderful performances. Brendan Conroy is superb as ‘The Bird’ O’Donnell, all nervous energy, and offering light relief by his willingness to do almost anything in exchange for a drink. Eamonn Hunt, familiar to some as Paudie Counihan in the TG4 drama ‘The Running Mate’, is well cast as auctioneer-cum-publican Mick Flanagan, in whose bar-room much of the action takes place.
Derbhle Crotty is outstanding as Flanagan’s wife Maimie, a small-town flirt who ends up shattered. Much of her speech in the final act has a dark humour, though some of the laughs it provides are uncomfortable given the darkness of the subject matter.
Three of us who attended it together in Dublin had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, even if one of our number ended up behind a large giddy man who may have been the world’s most restless theatregoer. Such was my friend’s exasperation at having to change position every two minutes or so that at one point I thought that that a second murder might be committed.
‘The Field’ is an option in the drama section of the Junior Cert English syllabus, so local students who are studying it may well decide to see the play for themselves when it comes to the TF Royal Theatre, Castlebar from February 22 to 24. And I’m sure no member of the Mayo audience will answer his or her phone if it’s accidentally left on!

‘The Field’ is being staged in The Royal Theatre, Castlebar, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, February 22, 23 and 24. The original dates – February 24, 25 and 26 – were changed, as the venue is being used as a General Election count centre.