“We’ll give him just enough to teach him a lesson.”
Thus says the Bull McCabe (Joe Murphy), evocative of recent horrific events in the Monaghan-Fermanagh border area, as an outsider William Dee (John Kavanagh) attempts to establish a business by buying and concreting a field, owned by the poor widow Maggie Butler (Geraldine Moore). Bull and his son Tadhg (Paul Kenna) believe they are entitled to the field having rented and nurtured it for five years. The villagers of Carraigthomond become complicit in events, with the go-between Bird O’Donnell (Kevin Lalor-Fitzpatrick) and auctioneer Mick Flanagan (Eamon Delaney) acting as major conspirators, and Bull’s relatives Dandy McCabe (Vincent Hogan) and Mrs McCabe (Catherine Scully) providing alibis. The Bishop (Colman Young) threatens cessation of Mass and refusal of the last sacraments to the parishioners over their silence. Maimie Flanagan (Jane Doheny) sympathises with the plight of Mr. Dee but won’t crack under the interrogation of Sergeant Leahy (Bernard O’Reilly) and Father Murphy (Michael Brennan). It is left to young Leah Flanagan (Shona McDonald), the conscience of the village, to break silence…….But will she?
The Field is John B. Keane’s fierce and tender study of the love a man can have for land and the ruthless lengths he will go to in order to obtain the object of his desire. It is dominated by Bull McCabe, one of the most famous characters in Irish writing today. An Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Field proved highly successful and popular worldwide, and starred Richard Harris, Sean Bean, John Hurt, Brenda Fricker and Tom Berenger.
Directed by David Corri, stage-managed by Noel Ryan, with a set designed and built by Keith Mason and Lar Scully and dressed by Catherine Scully, this production will keep you in your seats.
Laois theatre company, Fourth Wall productions will present John B Kean’e The Field at Thomastown Community hall on Saturday May 7th at 8pm. Tickets available 087 7728170
