Review: The Whiteheaded Boy Abbey Theatre (Dublin)
The Whiteheaded Boy is written by Lennox Robinson and directed by the award-winning Annie Ryan. An old classic play that premiered at the Abbey Theatre 110 years ago is now back in the theatre.
Every mommy has her favourite, but what if he is the youngest, failing college and letting everyone down, while the mother, Mrs. Geoghegan (played by Clare Barrett), completely neglects her other five children? This favourite youngest son is Denis, brought to life by Teddy Moore.
The production starts off strong; ten minutes before the show officially starts, there is a pre-show with Kate, played by Genevieve Hulme-Beaman, who gives a strong performance in portraying the role. Kate is a naive, quiet character, but with a touch of humour. As one of the siblings, she isn’t interacting much with the other cast members and is mostly on her own, doing her own thing. Instead, she connects directly with us, the audience, giving us updates about the characters. This is paired with a lot of unexpected dance breaks and surprising moments, easily making her my favourite character of the show.
However, during the main performance, the energy felt a bit flat. There are no changes in costumes or set-wise, and for the first half of the show, the family is gathered together almost the entire time, debating what to do with Denis. As he is failing school, the other siblings want to start their own lives, but now everything revolves around Denis. At the end of the first half, his older brother George (played by Peter McGann) concludes they should send him off to Canada. Of course, this isn't what Denis and his mother want.
We also learn that Denis is in love with Delia (played by Amy Molloy), although I didn’t really understand the connection or chemistry between them. To get ahead of everyone's opinions, the family secretly writes a letter to Delia, letting her know that Denis has a big opportunity and will leave for Canada soon. Once Delia’s father, John Duffy (played by Andrew Bennett), finds out about this sudden departure, he threatens to make the family's business public. The only way to stop him and avoid a scandal is to pay him £100.
At the end of Act One, I felt really confused about the play, and it didn’t really connect with me. At a specific moment in the show, everyone ran off stage and Kate came back to clean up the table; everyone in the audience thought it was already the interval, but the play still had 20 minutes left.
The second act, however, took a turn. There was a lot more going on, and not everyone was on stage the whole time. There was a lot more running around and bringing in different set pieces. There was a wonderful performance by Charlotte Cleary, who plays the role of Baby; a moment where she wants to play her keyboard and tries to keep it still for Kate, but fails, was one of the funniest moments in the show.
On the other hand, instead of a story about two younger people who fell in love, the romance was between Aunt Ellen (Anna Healy) and John Duffy (Andrew Bennett), who were old acquaintances from the past who had always had feelings for each other and fell in love.
The big question still was whether John was going to make the story public. He lets Denis choose between marrying Delia and bringing her to Canada or paying up. In the end, Denis wants to make his own decisions and manages to find a job. However, nobody agrees with this new independence, and they still offer him everything anyway. For Kate, this was the final straw, and she wants to set the house on fire. We are then treated to a little family concert where they sing together, and eventually, Kate actually sets the house on fire. It all felt a bit out of the blue.
Overall, I think The Whiteheaded Boy is a good play, especially because it is a real Irish play situated in Dublin. For locals, this is the perfect night out. I think it just misses a connection for international audiences; nevertheless, it is a good night out if you want to be fully immersed in Irish culture.
The Whiteheaded Boy runs at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, until 25th July.
Images by Patricio Cassinoni
★★★
