Reviews

Theatre: The Matchmaker

The lonely and the lovelorn, in rural Ireland, are the prey of matchmaker, Dicky Mick Dicky O’Connor in John B Keane’s 1976 play, The Matchmaker. This comedic two-hander, starring Mary McEvoy (inset) and Jon Kenny, is at times farcical. But beneath the ribaldry and the agricultural references — women are compared to mares and maidens are giddy fillies — is poignancy. Dicky’s wife, “the pulse of my heart,” dies. Although attuned to the isolation of his clients, the desolation of sitting alone in front of the hearth is visceral for Dicky. But there’s no better man to improve this situation, once his grief abates.

The play is mostly related through letters, from clients of Dicky and his hopeful replies to them promising them a good match, but often failing. McEvoy is particularly amusing as the stroppy Fionnuala, who becomes widowed twice in suspicious circumstances. She describes one of the husbands as lifeless, with “about as much spark in him as a wet sod of turf.”