Theatre review - A Great Arrangement at Gardens Theatre, Ballyphehane, Cork
The problem with trying to present a historical drama based on the correspondence between the main protagonists is that the letters have to be interesting. Pat Talbot’s play, focusing on the daily missives exchanged between the Irish revolutionary leader, Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan, his girlfriend, later to become his fiancée, is that the letters are for the most part fairly prosaic. No doubt Collins feared interception of his mail.
The interesting bits are when Collins writes about his loneliness in London, while negotiating the Treaty. There is no hint that he was reportedly cavorting around the metropolis, partying and flirting with women — even having a rumoured fling with Princess Mary of the British royal family.
