Taking the Bull by the horns

Michael Harding is no stranger to the stage, having written and starred in award-winning plays, and has travelled the length and breadth of the country doing readings from his hugely popular memoirs. But when the call came in before Christmas to offer him the role of the Bull McCabe, he initially turned it down.

“I was terrified of it. But I went home and I thought about it. I am in theatre for 30 years and I write and perform in plays, and I knew I would never be offered something like this again. So I went back again and said yes and jumped right in,” Michael explains.

He had initially planned on spending the early part of 2015 in Romania, working on the third and final instalment in his memoir series, but knowing rehearsals were starting in April, he cut his trip short after just three days.

“I had to come back, I was so worried, I just knew I needed to start working on this immediately,” Michael says.

The Field

The story of The Field is familiar to the nation. A man tends rented land for years, has put his blood and sweat into it, only to discover the widowed landowner is planning to sell the field to an outsider.

To add insult to injury, once the land is sold, the American businessman plans to build on the land the Bull McCabe has worked so hard on and, as we all know, his temper ends up getting the better of him. Michael feels that Keane’s play perfectly encapsulates the connection rural Irish people have to the land.

“Across the country people are very familiar with the play and they get the idea of somebody who is so desperate to hold on to land that he goes over the margin and commits a bad act. It’s really a play that, like all Keane’s work, just resonates with rural Ireland,” Michael says.

“Keane just knew the heart and the soul of rural Ireland and he was able to write it into many plays, in particular The Field.”

Harding plays the lead character, the Bull McCabe, a formidable man, standing tall with a harsh temper and a heavy wooden staff that suggest he’s not to be crossed.

“He has a huge passion for the land, but he’s also very conscious of injustice and he feels hurt himself. He’s aware that the lawmen and the doctors are a privileged class and he’s from somewhere outside that class,” says Michael.

“He’s a man who has a strange kind of poetic streak to him. He’s a giant of a man physically and in his emotions, although some of them are dark, violent and savage.”

As daunting as it is for Michael to play such a character, he has some comfort in the knowledge that he has successfully played a Kerryman on stage before in the county itself.

“On one play I worked on with Siamsa Tíre in Tralee, I performed as the great Kerry philosopher John Moriarty, so to some extent that comforts me as you need to get it right.”

When Irish Country Living asks if Michael can recall any particularly good performances of the Bull, one stands out.

“Richard Harris in the film is the one that jumps out in my mind.”

The next chapter

Once the play is over on 16 May, Harding will resume work on the final part in his trilogy of memoirs. The first, Staring at Lakes, was about his loss of faith and battle with depression. Hanging With the Elephant is about the death of his 96-year-old mother, Ellen.

He admits to being surprised at the success of his books, despite having worked as a writer for 35 years.

“You can survive as a writer without being hugely popular. I never expected such success and as some miser once said: ‘Success is the postponement of failure’, so I won’t be getting carried away with it.”

The 50th Anniversary Production of The Field runs 23 April to 16 May, at The Gaiety. Tickets from €22.50. Visit

www.gaietytheatre.ie

WIN

We have three pairs of tickets for the showing of The Field on 5 May. To win, answer this question:

The 50th Anniversary production of The Field takes place in what theatre?

• The Olympia Theatre

• The Gaiety Theatre

• The Bord Gáis Energy Theatre

Email answers to rhealy@farmersjour nal.ie with The Field as the subject, with your name and number by 29 April. Enter by post to The Field competition, Irish Country Living, Irish Farm Centre, Bluebell, Dublin 12.