Words: Ger Cody
Photos : Céire Hoey photography
When asked by his family, how he would like to be remembered, John B. Keane said: “I’d like to be remembered as the man who scored the winning goal in the North Kerry Junior Football final against Duagh in 1951.”
He further added that after that decisive goal he was lifted shoulder high off the field. John B., for all his plays, novels, essays and poems, was a humble man who loved his native town of Listowel. He claimed that just living there gave him all the material he needed.
Hardly a week goes by, when some theatre group announce that they are staging a JB play.
And so it was last week when local group Barn Owl productions staged ‘Big Maggie at the Thomastown concert hall. Under the direction of Philip Hardy, the group staged one of their finest productions, with excellent casting. In the title role, Mags Whitely played a blinder, capturing every nuance that was needed. Set in Ireland of the1960’, when women were expected to be subordinate to men and were repressed by church teaching, Keane gave Big Maggie the opportunity to be sharp, volatile and hard hitting. Whitely did this. And some. The eleven strong cast displayed wonderful talent and the ensemble playing was a joy to behold.
‘Maggie’ shows how a widow takes over the reigns following the death of her husband. In doing so she manages to fall out with each of her children.
Understanding Keane
To understand Keane’s love affair with writing we must take a step back in time. In the early 1950s Bryan McMahon and Eamon Kelly founded the Listowel Drama Group. In 1958 the group had produced a prize winning production of Joseph Tomelty’s ‘All Souls Night’.
Shortly afterward during a chance meeting on the street, John B. was to inform the group that he was not greatly impressed by the Tomelty play and was going to write his own.
By that time, John B. was married to his wife Mary and was living in the now famous Listowel pub. It was to be in the back kitchen that ‘Sive’ was created in a few short weeks of what surely must have been a frenzied spell of continuous writing.
Subsequent to a bald rejection by the Abbey Theatre of this new play, John B. presented the ‘Sive’ script to the Listowel players. ‘Sive’ opened on February 2nd 1959 at Walsh’s Ballroom, Listowel, to an astounded audience who laughed and cried. That production marked the beginning of the legend that is John B. Keane.
‘Sive’ drew back the veil on Ireland of the 1950s, a hidden Ireland and a world of poverty, loneliness and sexual frustration.
Former teacher, author and journalist, Con Houlihan, gave his own reason for Keane’s success:
“John B. was blessed to have been born in Listowel and as he walked the bank of the river Feale, it consoled him. J.B. grew up in the bitter aftermath of a Civil War in a land impoverished by Éamon De Valera’s concept of Economics and John Charles McQuaid’s concept of Religion. It was a society with the Puritan vices but not the Puritan virtues”. What made this son of Listowel write such roles as Big Maggie Polpin?
According to Houlihan, Keane cast a fierce light on the Hidden Ireland: on a world of poverty and loneliness and sexual frustration.
He was part of a rebellion. Indeed, you could say that at least in the theatre he was its healer.
As Con Houlihan said: “What critics failed to understand about John B. was that he was essentially a Bogman. He loved the vast moorland that lies between Listowel and Castleisland. You will find no brighter people than its inhabitants.”
Women’s roles
John B.’s understanding of the role of women in society is clearly highlighted in his female characters.
One very strong reason for John B’s admiration for women was his mother who was a member of Cumann na Mban . Reports tell of a time when The Black and Tans caught and challenged her while pointing a rifle in her face. She said, “go ahead and fire”.
According to his daughter Joanna, it was also her father’s work as a chemist’s assistant that allowed him such an understanding.
This experience shaped his views about women and would have deepened his insightful interest into the female psyche.
From his study at A.H. Jones Pharmacy, William Street, Listowel, he observed the vagaries of the male/female relationships and was often infuriated at how men treated their sexual counterparts. At the same time, he wasn’t naïve and he knew that some men were victims of merciless female manipulation and dominance.
This helps to understand some of his female characters. Look at the matriarchal tyrant of female control of ‘Big Maggie’ for instance. A marriage proposal to Maggie is met with flippant wit: “I would sooner be buckled to a baboon than to be buckled to you”
In ‘The Change in Mame Fadden’ he delved into the angst of menopause. In ‘Sive’ he looked at the juxtaposition of innocent maidenhood and sexual exploitation and he exposed virulent female betrayal in the ‘Chastitute’.
Barn Owl Productions played to packed houses in Thomastown with a mixture of ‘old hands’ and some newer members, showing the strength of amateur theatre in Kilkenny. Cast included: Mags Whitely, Megan Kelly, Kathy Hession, Barry Rafter, Ben Nunan, Eoin Nangle Ryan, John Whitely, Kelly Croke, Nicola Ryan, Jim Carroll, Catriona Bambrick. Direction was by Philip Hardy with lighting design by Vincent Dempsey. Stage management was by Catriona Bambrick and Michael Cotter.
NOTE: Congratulations to the Thomastown Concert hall for their promotion of the arts in Kilkenny and their very busy programme.
