Mary McEvoy feels like a new woman after losing three stone ahead of return to stage
As Mary McEvoy returns to the stage, she talks to about facing her food addiction — and losing three stone in weight
Actress Mary McEvoy remembers the day her life changed last May. “I was in a really grumpy mood,” she admits.
With her weight approaching morbidly obese levels, she had finally decided to contact a weight loss specialist.
“I was about to go to France on holidays,” she remembers, “and I actually said to them, ‘Is there any point in even starting this programme before I leave?’”
The candid response she received was not what she was expecting.
“They asked me was I going to France to feel the sun on my skin, visit friends and embrace new places or was I going to fill my face with food and wine,” she laughs. Less than six months later, Mary has lost three stone and reveals this forthright, no nonsense response changed her life.
I was a food addict,” she admits. “I feel things very deeply and food was my pleasure. I found my comfort in the tub of ice-cream or the pizza.
Mary has been working with Katriona Tansley from Lighter Life, whose headquarters are based in Mullingar near where she lives.
“All weight loss programmes have something to offer,” she says. “What has really helped me with this programme is the counselling. That’s really important to help maintain the loss.”
Because as she says, over-eating and food addiction are emotional issues. And she reveals the other big factor in her weight gain was menopause.
“It’s still such a taboo subject,” she says. “But it had a profound impact on me. You feel like you’re no longer a player in life and you do disappear. I disappeared under the weight.”
But as Mary — who will be 64 this year — maintains, women of a certain age disappear from film and TV.
“I found a chasm of difference between my 50s and my 60s. There are a few notable exceptions of older women on screen, like Helen Mirren and Susan Sarandon, but honestly, they are the exceptions. The rare times I see women in their 60s on TV is when they’re advertising having your funeral paid for in advance,” she laughs. “They’re these biddable old dears making parsnip jam. I can honestly say I don’t know anyone like that.”
Her new found zest for life is having an impact on her current role in The Matchmaker, the hit play adapted from the renowned Kerry writer John B Keane’s novella Letters of a Country Matchmaker.
“I’m enjoying it more than ever,” she says. “And every time I’m on stage, I’m loosening another stay in the corset.”
Having performed in the play for more than 17 years, she describes it as the gift that keeps on giving.
“I started off in The Matchmaker with Mick Lally (who played Miley to her Biddy in RTÉ’s Glenroe) and for the last few years, I’ve played alongside Jon Kenny, who just adds so much to it. It’s been running now for 30 years and there are people in the audience who have seen it three times.”
And despite it being set in an Ireland more than 50 years ago, Mary says the play reveals a different aspect of that time.
“It’s funny, we look back on the ’50s and the ’60s and see them as priest-ridden and everyone denying themselves. But people had the same needs then as now, they wanted sex and intimacy. And in a way, back then, they were much more practical about their needs. The matchmaker ensured ‘all faculties are in full working order’. They provided a really important service and would you believe they’re still around. I’m reading about modern matchmakers in Hollywood.”
Jon Kenny and Mary play a myriad of earthy characters and one of the roles Mary plays is Finnoula Crust who she maintains always gets a big laugh.
Finnoula makes no bones about it,” she reveals. “She’s looking to have her physical needs satisfied. By the end of the play, she’s a widow twice over having worn out two husbands and is about to embark on her third marriage.
The Matchmaker certainly strikes a chord with audiences since it’s ultimately about finding The One, no matter what age you are, something John B Keane felt passionately about.
“Being older doesn’t mean everything has to stop,” says Mary. “By and large, you’ll be wrong in assuming older people aren’t sexually active.”
With her new found weight loss, she’s also passionate about older people seizing the day and living the best life they can.
“I had a moment just a few weeks ago,” she recounts, “when I realised how much had changed for me. I was trying on shoes in a shop and I was bending down to fasten them. I suddenly realised I wasn’t stretching over my tummy and I wasn’t out of breath. It was a very simple moment, but for me it was profound.”
And she insists this isn’t just about aesthetics. “It’s about our health and we have to look after our physical as well as our mental health. I was lost. I felt I had no control over myself and I believed there was no point in even trying to lose weight.”
Now in her 60s, she reveals she’s never been happier.
Food is no longer my only pleasure in life. I’m using my five senses to find joy and meaning.
“It’s not always easy and I know I’ll have to keep working on it but it’s important to be able to withstand discomfort and to try and master yourself.
“I’m after getting a part of myself back that I believed I had lost forever.”
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