Mary McEvoy: Dearth of decent roles for women

Mary McEvoy, who stars alongside Jon Kenny in John B Keane’s play, The Matchmaker, is appreciative of the Kerry playwright’s strong roles for women.

McEvoy is an independent woman herself who is combining rehearsing for the play with lambing season on her farm in Westmeath. She has 60 ewes. The sheep keep her “grounded.” The acting is an outlet for her creativity. She is juggling both jobs, organising people to deliver the lambs when she is unable to do so.

Farming seems like an appropriate job for the woman best known as Biddy from RTE’s rural soap, Glenroe. “Up until Mick Lally’s death in 2010, we were doing The Matchmaker together. The last time I did the play with Mick was three months before he died. I’ve done it with Des Keogh as well. It’s a great auld show. The more I do it, the more I see in it.”

A revival of Michael Scott’s iconic production, the play follows the efforts of Dicky Mick Dicky O’Connor to make matches for the lonely and lovelorn. “While it’s of a certain time in the past, there’s actually a lot of wisdom in The Matchmaker. It’s also a hoot.”

The play is demanding for the actors. In an unsophisticated way, it has quite a bit of sophistication, particularly in its attitudes to sex. It was ahead of its time and I think it’s still relevant. Some of it is unbelievably politically incorrect.”

McEvoy points out that Keane’s women are interested in sex. “There’s one particular character I play in The Matchmaker who’s mad for it. Back when John B Keane was writing, women were seen working in the home, not having any kind of libido. But his women have sexual desire. For all our modernity, that is still seen as dodgy. A man can be a bit of a player but a woman is a tart. There is still that double standard.”

McEvoy is acutely aware of the dearth of decent roles for women, although she is having a good run at the moment, having starred in an all female cast in Ailis Ní Ríain’s Desolate Heaven at the Everyman recently.

“Unless you’re Helen Mirren, Judi Dench or Maggie Smith, no actress has it sussed. There are few roles for older women. I know it sounds like a well banged trumpet at this stage, but it’s true. As somebody said to me, let women write roles for women. I’ve made several starts but I get distracted by the sheep. I do some writing but it’s more opinionated pieces. But I might yet write a play about an opinionated woman.”

Becoming “invisible” is all part of the experience of older women, says McEvoy. “I get to read roles for films. All the roles I’m offered are somebody’s aunt or granny or the old gossip down the road. There’s nothing with any teeth in it. It’s difficult for women to buck the trend.”

McEvoy, who has battled depression for 20 years, now says that she seems to have come out of the darkness, although she “had a little echo of it recently. But I’m coping well at the moment.” Having written a memoir, she is working on a book that deals with her spirituality. “I need to be still because the book is about having the space to see nature and the world through paying attention. It’s hard to do that at the moment.”

The Matchmaker is at the Everyman Theatre from April 7-12.