When ‘Fourth Wall’ theatre company take to the stage in Thomastown Concert hall, one thing is certain. The audience will have the time of their lives. Comedy will abound. As a matter of fact there will be little else, because their production of Moll by JB Keane is a laugh from beginning to end.
John B. Keane’s Moll is a comedic play set in a rural Irish presbytery where a shrewd new housekeeper, Moll (Maureen Kettle), takes control of the household. She manipulates the elderly Canon Pratt, starves the young curates, masters the parish finances through bingo, and secures a comfortable future, ultimately disrupting the clerical hierarchy.
The play is famously described in marketing and synopsis materials as a comedy where a new housekeeper is compared to a change in government: “When a presbytery gets a new housekeeper, it becomes like a country that gets a change of government, or like a family that gets a new stepmother.”
“Tis hard to come back to the plain black and white when one is used to the purple.” (A famous line spoken by the character Moll Kettle herself, describing her need for luxury).
However, comedy aside , let’s take a look at Ireland of the 60’s and 70’s and the role of the priests housekeeper.
Parochial housekeeper
The Parochial housekeeper had become a veritable institution of Irish society during the first half of the twentieth century. While her role was to manage the Parochial house, her proximity to the functions of the Parish Priest enabled her to quietly relieve him of almost all of those functions. Even in the discharge of such canonical duties as the celebration of Mass or the administering of the sacraments the seasoned housekeeper assumed a partnership with the priest and when a petrified parishioner called at her door with a ‘token’ for Mass, she took his money with an assurance that: “We will be saying that Mass for you next Wednesday”.
It was a source of pride for any mother to have her daughter installed as the Parish Priest’s housekeeper. It gave the family a status equivalent to that of having a daughter a nun. Within a short time the newly appointed housekeeper became an authority on Canon Law and Liturgical protocol and she could even have opinions on matters theological. She became well versed in the Church Calendar and she was on first name terms with every priest in the diocese. She was able to cook for and converse with all ‘quality’ visitors and she knew the correct form of address for every level of the hierarchy from Priest to Pope. Indeed she carried in her head a store of knowledge and a wealth of wisdom that was rare and reserved for a special few.
It is not surprising, therefore, that this rara avis, this paragon of propriety and correctness, would come under the quizzical eye and subtle wit of John B. Keane and come to be characterised so forcefully in the person of Moll.
Fourth Wall open their rún of Moll in the Thomastown Concert hall on Saturday April 11 with further dates in, Moat, Dunamaise, Birr, Summerhill and Kilcullen.
Cast includes, ReginaO’Kelly, John Kavanagh, Kevin Lawlor Fitzpatrick, Joe Murphy, Michael Brennan, Mags McCarthy, and Tom Butler. Directed by Kevin Lawlor Fitzpatrick. Stage Manager is John Doheny
