By Claire Corrigan
In John B Keane’s first and most famous play, Sive, which he wrote when he was a 30-year-old publican recently returned to his native Listowel in County Kerry, tells the story of an evil matchmaker who sells a young girl to an old farmer.
A traveller, Pats Bocock, puts a hex on the grasping, cynical Thomasheen Seán Rua: “You are the bladder of a pig, the snout of a sow; you are the leavings of a hound, the sting of a wasp. You will die roaring.”
Writing twenty years later about what was on his mind in 1959, Keane remarked: “Having been weaned on a fairly consistent diet of myths and legends, it was inevitable that I should endeavour to dramatically document the affairs and aspirations of the outlandish denizens peculiar to the remote countryside of my father’s people. The Celtic or pagan part of my own make-up has always been drawn more to the contrary and the macabre.”
Director Paul Curley who has extensive experience both of the stage both on and off, will be at the helm to oversee the cast of nine’s performance of the iconic play ‘Sive’ which comes to Mullingar Arts Centre later this month.
“The cast have been in rehearsals for the past five weeks. We’re coming to that pivotal point in every play where they’re getting off script. Originally, they were getting their heads around the characters and learning lines and now we are reaching the point where they are putting the scripts down and they can really work. You cannot work a play with a script in your hand it’s just impossible so the acting only really begins now,” Mr. Curely told Topic.
Mr. Curley has long been fascinated by the play even playing a role in it several years ago. “I first came across this play thirty years ago and I was so overpowered by the play itself and I thought it would be wonderful to be on that stage in that play and then later on I thought it would be wonderful to direct that play with other people on the stage. It’s almost like a process. You see the play, you love it, you want to be in it and then you’re in it and you love it even more and then you want to direct.”
His chance to take part in the play came when a member of the cast dropped out giving only a weeks’ notice. “The play was cast and it was opening on a Sunday night and on the previous Monday because I was so enthusiastic, I went up to make tea for the cast at the interval and sweep the floor and get the theatre ready. One of the class pulled out seven nights before opening night and the director was completely at sea and he asked me if I would be able to learn the part in seven nights. I stayed up at night and learned my lines and we opened on the Sunday as planned. I was completely immersed in it and that has definitely stuck with me.”
For most 21st-century theatre goers who will see it – including a generation of young people who are studying the text as part of their Leaving Cert English course – John B Keane’s Sive portrays an Ireland that no longer exists.
“At the time, the play was just viewed as another John B. Keane play and it wasn’t viewed as something from the perspective of academia like the Leaving Certificate curriculum or, as it’s sometimes compared to now, a Greek tragedy. Thirty years ago it was another play that people just loved and it packed the houses every night. I do think that John B. Keane wrote this story based on his own observations in Listowel. Whilst the written story isn’t the same as the original observation, it’s not far removed from it.”
Mr. Curley said he wanted to ensure the focus was the actors and the emotions they convey. “I wanted to do a take on this where we would use minimalist setting. I didn’t want to have too much furnishing and all kinds of iconic Irish kitchens of the 1950s. I wanted to remove as much of that as possible so the full focus is on the story-tellers, the actors. I want the play to be about a heartbeat and emotive relationships on stage and connectivity. An audience should feel a depth of emotion from the players. Every conversation held on stage should not only be passionate, emotional and forthcoming but electric and completely giving from every actor and receiving in kind.”
Sive opens on Tuesday, 22 November at Mullingar Arts Centre. Tickets can be purchased by calling 044-9344777.
