The Ferryman(Royal Court)

Really enjoyed it, easily one of the plays of the year, better than I was expecting because I thought the reviews likely to be over-generous. I think it's a better drama than Jerusalem, which had a brilliant lead role but not much else, although I'm not totally sold on the ending.

Seriously tempted to go back and see the replacement cast, which is not something I normally do.

Anyone seen the new cast? Keen to hear how Will Houston and Sarah Greene are in the lead roles.

I dayseated on Thursday, was there at 7:30 and the next person only arrived at 9:30. There were around 6 or 7 people by 10:30 so definitely not busy on a weekday. The box office staff was not nice and refused is entering the theatre till 10:30 so we had to queue in the cold although they were open since 10. At Kinky Boots they allow to wait inside!

The new cast is just as brilliant as the previous one and the play looks even more moving from the front row.

I love love love it and I am extremely grateful it exists.

I miss out from time to time. I find out about plays I really should have seen, sometimes years after they’ve been on. But it’s my own fault; I’m mean when it comes to forking out to see a play, having seen some real duds in my time, and with limited funds I’d rather go for a musical. I don’t see many dud musicals. Perhaps I’m just better at selecting them.

The Ferryman’s had a lot of attention, and not wanting to feel like I’d missed out again, I took myself along to a matinee. It’s been quite some time since I’d felt that certain buzz in the audience before the show starts. But it was there the afternoon I went, a couple of weeks back.

There was a bit of a bruiser staring at us before the house lights dimmed, and after they did we learned that Seamus Carney disappeared ten years ago, leaving behind his wife and son who had been taken in by Seamus’ brother, Quinn, to live with his family now. It’s what families do, look after each other…

It turns out there’s an awful lot of disappearing- ‘vanishing’- going on here. Mary, Quinn’s wife, vanishes to the confines of her bedroom, nursing her viruses, or it is because she can’t face her husband’s love turning towards the sister-in-law they’ve taken in? Aunt Maggie’s mind vanishes for days, weeks on end to somewhere Faraway only to return momentarily to entertain, to spill the truth, to reveal the secrets of the past. And Tom Kettle, an oversized Englishman, never the sharpest tool on the farm, has vanished from where he once belonged. And no-one really knows how he came to be taken in by this community.

Community. There’s a real sense of community spirit here we rarely see. Old and young live side by side, under the one roof. Caitlin shaves Uncle Pat, while he sits and entertains with his stories of the past; the young cousins take it in turns to move their Aunt from one room to another in her wheelchair; a baby is changed and cared for by everyone in the house. They sing, they dance, they make kites for each other. Even when Michael Carney shows his sister his bumhole you sense it is only in jest! These are troubled people living through The Troubles, but they manage to create a sense of warmth here. But you get the feeling it’s only a matter of time before that bruiser will pay a visit…

And it’s Harvest Time. A time when traditionally the soil will produce fruit, a time of great excitement, for a goose (yes, a real one!) is going to be killed and cooked if only some silly bugger hadn’t inadvertently let it out of its pen. To our relief it’s found. Like the body of Seamus Carney, found now after ten years, buried in the bogs which have preserved him. But it’s the wrong time for the soil to be revealing the secret it’s been holding onto all this time, for it might derail the attention which should be on the plight of the IRA hunger strikers dying out in the Maze. Aunt Pat is following every step of this on the wireless, so she is.

And here is the conflict. Well, one of many. The bruisers want Quinn Carney to keep quiet about his brother’s demise; Mary finally wants rid of her sister-in-law; Shane Corcoran wants his cousins to forget he’s told them he’s been playing with fire.

Over three hours we laugh at Uncle Pat telling Aunt Pat how she’s been reeking of piss from the neck down all these years, we cry listening to Aunt Maggie Farway’s tale of her life-long love for a boy who probably didn’t even know of her existence, and we cringe with embarrassment at Tom Kettle’s ill-timed marriage proposal.

The cast I saw was universally outstanding (there’s a new cast now, I believe) but I must confess my soft spot for Brid Brennan, the host of talented kids at this particular performance, and the stand-out for me, Tom Glynn-Carney as the cocky little sh*t who thinks he’s in with the big boys, not clever enough to realise he’ll be ending up in the same bog as Seamus Carney. A theme particularly resonant today with youngsters crossing dangerous world borders, desperate to fight for a cause they don’t understand themselves, wreaking havoc on innocent bystanders’ lives.

The piece started as a slow burn, but not a word here is wasted, as stories unfold, secrets come out, and the play gradually picks up speed, working towards its unforeseen climax.

I am so glad I forked out for this. It was definitely a chance worth taking. And it’s not often I’ve booked to see a play again, but I have. I’ll always make an exception for something exceptional.

*****+ (+ = for managing to make reference to the Eurovision Song Contest!)

@caiaphas I think new Shane Corcoran is’t Tom but someone else. Tom was in the original cast (I laughed as with a dozen Carneys in stage the actor whose name is Carney plays Corcoran), and the new cast Shane is someone different. Loved your post!

It’s been a week since I recisited but I am still under its spell. Just as last time, one of the most powerful experiences and emotions.

Such a good play, and the first time I’ve seen decent story telling since Hangmen. I think Hangmen just beat this, for me, but a great production and cast.

Now that’s a really interesting question because, of course, most scripts need life breathing into them to make them come “alive” from the printed word on the page. The writing is very good so yes, they do “work” but only up to a point. They’re no substitute for seeing them in performance, a bit like eating chocolate with the wrapper on(!), but I am really enjoying them, and enjoying imagining how they were staged. I’m Googling images of the original productions too and reading old reviews, many of which weren’t over-complimentary... 

There’s one exception- The River. Didn’t like this at all. I would think it was quite a different beast on stage.

There’s also a mystery... every so often the word ‘Beat’ is written as a stage direction in brackets. Written several times in each script. And I have absolutely no idea what it means or indicates. Google has not been my friend either... 

I would love to hear others’ comments on any of Jez Butterworth’s plays, either in performance or the writing, and if anyone can solve the ‘mystery’ I’d be happy to buy them an ice-cream in the interval of his next play. Because I’ll be there like a shot this time!

What's your preferred flavour, bordeaux ?!

(I was thinking it must be something along those lines...) Many thanks!

Yes- 'beat' and 'Pause' are used fairly interchangeably by writers, and each has a particular personal interpretation of what they mean. As a rule I think mostly 'Beat' is considered a shorter one (like a short 'rest'in written music) and 'Pause' is something more substantial (so maybe a bar-rest in music).

But such things are relative to writer and director and who knows what else!

I will at some point write some thoughts on Ferryman. I'm probably going to do a blog post incorporating it into what happens when you really dislike the 'in thing' in theatre.

Following on from some of your responses, I found this. It would seem that it’s much more common in screenplays. I’ve never seen it in playscripts before, although I think Jez Butterworth maybe uses the term as he’s been largely working in films.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(filmmaking)

I have seen the play twice now, once with the original cast and saw the new cast on their first weekend. For me this play is one of the finest pieces of theatre I have ever seen. It is powerful and thought provoking, and it felt very realistic for the time in the province.

I had what could only be described as a hysterically emotional experience watching it for the first time, given that I am Northern Irish and grew up in the province in the 80s. My family are from Twinbrook, I was baptised in the church that is mentioned in the play, my grandparents are buried in the same cemetery as Bobby Sands. My Grandparents actually went to pay respects to Sands when his body was brought home to be waked, my aunt was one of the mourners at the funeral. I never expected to find Twinbrook mentioned anywhere in the West End.

I have met people like Muldoon and let me tell you Stuart Graham plays it so well, and yes people like Muldoon would be surrounded by yes men who would be willing to do anything without question.

"The Troubles" are now seen as history but for people like me who grew up at the epicentre of it, The Ferryman is not a representation of "history" it is watching what we lived through brought to live in a way that is unexpected yet still hits you like a hammer through your soul (as Will Houston described it to us at SD).

I have already booked for the final night and no doubt will have a couple more trips to the show before then.

I really liked the new cast on the whole, I definitely preferred Will Houston over Paddy - he had a harder edge than Paddy and it felt more real that he would have had the history he does in the play. Sarah Greene was exceptional as Caitlin. On the whole the play is as good if not better - we were worried it would lose something with the new cast but this was definitely not the case.