THEATRE Druid brings ‘Big Maggie’ to Mayo

BLACK WIDOW Aisling O’Sullivan plays Maggie Polpin in ‘Big Maggie’.

The unshakeable will of Big Maggie


Going out
Ciara Moynihan

Druid Theatre Company’s production of John B Keane’s play ‘Big Maggie’, directed by Garry Hynes, will be staged in the Royal Theatre Castlebar on December 6 and 7. The play’s eight-night opening run in Galway’s Town Hall Theatre, which finished on Saturday night last, completely sold out as word about the calibre of the production spread fast.
Set in suffocating 1960s rural Ireland, John B Keane’s ‘Big Maggie’ is a compelling portrait of a woman determined to take control of her life after the death of her hard-drinking, abusive husband. The play explores the dark side of Irish family life, carefully constructing a compelling vision of the Irish mother as steely sociopath. Unsurprisingly, it caused ripples of shock among audiences when it first premiered in 1969.
Maggie Polpin, a newly widowed mother of four living in rural Co Kerry, is left to run the family shop and farm. She is no simple cliché of accepting or victimised Irish femininity, however. This is a life-calloused, uncompromising woman who’s quest for personal security will see off any challengers. She refuses to take on the role set out by cultural precedent and drives all of her children away rather than mollycoddle them.
First to go is the eldest son. Promised a share of the business by his late father, and eager to take what he feels he’s owed, his dreams are crushed when Maggie reveals her husband left no will, but gave the shop to her, and her alone, a year before his death. As the play progresses, Maggie confronts each of her children, shattering their images of themselves until all have been forced to leave the nest. Throughout, she holds the position her actions are for her children’s own good and that they must learn how hard and cruel the world really is.
‘Big Maggie’ echoes an earlier John B Keane play, the ‘The Field’. It entertains with quick wit and humour, but the humour is a foil that serves to throw dark undercurrents, raw human sadness and warped societal norms into relief. Here the theme of love in absentia drags sharply against comedic moments, challenging our laughter and highlighting how as a nation we turn to humour to cope, and to hide from uncomfortable truths.
The iconic role of Maggie is played by Aisling O’Sullivan. No stranger to troubled matriarchal characters, O’Sullivan played Francie’s mentally unstable mother in Neil Jordan’s adaptation of ‘The Butcher Boy’, as well as a grieving mother who takes her own life in playwright Martin McDonagh’s Oscar-winning short film ‘Six Shooter’. Many will also know her from RTÉ dramas ‘The Clinic’ and ‘Raw’.
Joining O’Sullivan will be some big names among young emerging Irish actors, including Paul Connaughton, Charlie Murphy, Amy Molloy and Sarah Greene. Playing Byrne, the stonemason – the one character whose caustic wit is a match for Maggie’s own – is John Olohan. Joan Sheehy returns to Druid to play the role of Mrs Madden. Keith Duffy, plays one of Keane’s most memorable characters, the lusty commercial traveller Teddy Heelin (not a million miles away from his Coronation Street role, one might imagine). ‘Big Maggie’ marks another notch in the bedpost of Druid’s exploration of John B Keane’s work, which began in 2002 with ‘Sive’, followed by ‘Sharon’s Grave’ (2003) and ‘The Year of the Hiker’ (2006).

‘Big Maggie’ will be staged in the Royal Theatre, Castlebar on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 6 and 7. Tickets, €25 each, are available from the Royal Box Office on 0818 300 000 or online at www.ticketmaster.ie.

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