The Front Row: ambundance of laughs to be had in Cork

Theatregoers in Cork and all over Munster are in for a treat next week at The Everyman.

Present Laughter is one of Noël Coward’s four great comedies of manners, along with Hay Fever, Private Lives and Blithe Spirit.

An overwhelming critical and commercial success when it was first produced in London’s West End in 1942, the play presents a masterly, exaggerated picture not only of the playwright himself, but of his whole household, his court, his admirers, his lifestyle, and his era.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing a filmed version of the stage play, produced at the National Theatre in London, and starring our own Andrew Scott in the lead role. Scott produced an award-winning performance, showing his immense comedic talents.

Present Laughter was actually written by Noël Coward in 1939, but not produced until 1942 because the Second World War began while it was in rehearsal, and British theatres closed.

The title is from a song in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. “Present mirth hath present laughter” is a line from the song O Mistress Mine, part of a carpe diem lyric, a song that encourages people to live in the moment and seize the day.

The plot in Present Laughter depicts a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light comedy actor Garry Essendine, as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa.

Set among a series of farcical events, he has to deal with women wishing to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his ex-wife, cope with a crazed and admiring young playwright, and overcome his impending mid-life crisis, given that he has recently turned 40! The character is a caricature of the author’s real-life persona, as Coward later acknowledged.

In fact, Coward starred as Garry during the original run, which began with a long provincial tour to accommodate wartime audiences. He subsequently reprised the role in the first British revival, and also did so in America and Paris.

Such is the quality of the part of Garry, and its enduring popularity with audiences even 80 years after its original appearance, that many of the greatest actors have played the role, including Albert Finney, Peter O’Toole, Donald Sinden, Ian McKellen and Simon Callow.

This latest production comes to The Everyman after a sell-out run at Cork Arts Theatre, and features an all-Cork cast under the direction of the remarkable Mary Curtin.

The cast includes Cork standouts Shirley McCarthy, Rebecca Allman, Ann Dorgan, Ian McGuirk, Vannessa Hyde, Marie O’Donovan, Jim O’Mahoney, Kenneth Speight, and one of Cork’s rising young talents Oskar Smith.

Present Laughter is considered one of the enduring successes of modern comedic theatre, and its longevity, and continuing relevance, shows Coward’s genius at its best.

The play runs from 24-28 September, with an afternoon performance on the last day. Tickets are priced from €27.

Friel play

Molly Sweeney is a two-act play by Brian Friel, and starts a short run at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway next week.

It tells the story of its title character, Molly, a woman who has been blind since infancy and who undergoes an operation to try to restore her sight. Like Friel’s better-known Faith Healer, the play tells Molly’s story through monologues by three characters: Molly herself, her husband Frank, and her surgeon, Mr Rice.

While the play enjoyed considerable success on the stage, it perhaps suffered somewhat from being compared with Faith Healer, another play composed of a series of monologues delivered on an empty stage by characters who have no interaction. While it failed to receive much, if any, critical acclaim, audiences loved Molly Sweeney.

The play’s main character built, despite her affliction, an independent life rich in friendships and sensual fulfilment, but suffers from ill-fated encounters with two men who destroy it and cause her madness.

She marries Frank who becomes convinced that she can only be complete when her vision is restored, while Mr. Rice is a once-renowned eye surgeon who uses Molly to try to restore his career. Friel acknowledged that the story was inspired in part by Oliver Sacks’s essay, To See and Not See.

Molly Sweeney had its first performance 30 years ago, in August 1994, at Dublin’s Gate Theatre. That first production was directed by Friel and featured an incredible cast; Catherine Byrne as Molly, Mark Lambert as Frank Sweeney, and T.P. McKenna as Mr. Rice.

Two years later it was off Broadway, again with Byrne in the lead role, and won an award for outstanding play of the 1996 season.

Genevieve Hulme-Beaman takes the role of Molly in this Decadent Theatre Company and Town Hall Theatre production, directed by Andrew Flynn. Given the play’s content and complexity, it is recommended for an audience older than 12 years of age.

After its run in Galway, Molly Sweeney will transfer to the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire and form part of the Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival. It runs there from 1-6 October and tickets are from €28.