Making History review: Impressive production of Brian Friel's turning-point tale at Everyman
Aaron McCusker and Liadán Dunlea in a scene from Making History, at the Everyman. Picture: Marcin Lewandowski
★★★★☆
This revival of Brian Friel’s at the Everyman Theatre is a bold declaration of intent from the venue’s new artistic director Des Kennedy at a time when making interesting theatre is more challenging than ever.
The play, directed by Kennedy, centres on clan chieftain Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, who led a revolt against Elizabeth I, culminating in the Nine Years War, and ignominious defeat at the Battle of Kinsale. Tonally, it is a far cry from the polemic of Friel’s or the verbal dancing of but it shares many of the themes of those works.
The story of O’Neill is for many lost in the foggy recesses of their schooling but this work foregrounds him as representative of a lost civilisation, while interrogating the timely topic of history’s relationship to the truth.
The play begins in 1591, with O’Neill’s marriage to his third wife, the Anglo-Irish Protestant Mabel Bagenal and ends nine years after the Flight of the Earls, in Rome, where O’Neill is exiled.
The action opens with Friel’s reimagined O’Neill, played with conviction by Aaron McCusker, discussing his appointment diary in plummy tones with faithful aide Harry Hovenden (Stephen O’Leary). The chieftain of popular imagination cuts a more effete figure here, clad in a designer jacket, and more concerned with flower arranging than political machinations.
Enter a hyperactive Hugh O’Donnell (Aron Hegarty) and suitably pontificating Archbishop of Armagh, Peter Lombard (Ray Scannell) who has positioned himself as O’Neill’s biographer, or rather, as it turns out, hagiographer. Thus begins another battle — between the myth and the man.
Cork actress Liadán Dunlea is a lively and spirited presence as Mabel, pulling off an English accent with aplomb, and the well-played scene between her and sister Mary (Martha Dunlea) is a welcome reprieve from the masculine dynamic.
The second half begins with a bang, literally, as the country is brought to its knees by the English and a demoralised O’Neill and O’Donnell plot their next moves before Harry comes bearing bad news.
The action then moves to Rome, with an older, embittered and impoverished O’Neill still tended to by the loyal but jaded Harry, the transition in character seamlessly realised in wonderful performances from Denis Conway and Chris McHallem.
It all builds to a powerful and affecting denouement, with the older Lombard (Peter Gowen) reading his heroic narrative juxtaposed with O’Neill reciting his submission to Elizabeth, as he reverts to his native Northern accent.
Production quality is impressively high, from Mel Mercier’s typically apposite and accomplished soundscape to the distinctive modern costuming and set design. Similarly, the echoes in today’s global political turmoil are clearly signposted throughout, from O’Neill’s Zelensky-like garb of crew-neck jumper and combats to O’Donnell’s Palestinian scarf, although the addition of Hazmat-suited stage crew may have been a step too far for some.
Overall, this is a strikingly ambitious production which rewards the decision to opt for a play of rigour and intent rather than an easy choice from the ranks of proven crowd-pleasers.
- runs at the Everyman Theatre, Cork until Apr 26. everymancork.com
