The Field

‘The Field’ is an Irish ‘who-dunnit’ written by John B. Keane and presented by the Irish Theatre Players at the Irish Club Theatre, 61 Townshend Road, Subiaco nightly at 8.00 pm until 7^th March. Always a warm welcome.

            Sweet old Maggie Butler (Ann Barker) is short of cash and decides to sell her only asset, a 4-acre field. She asks Mick Flanagan (Bill Nash), local publican and real estate agent, to auction it with a reserve price of 800 pounds. The tenant farmer, ‘Bull’ (Pat Dunne – excellent), who has grazed the land for years, feels that he is entitled to it at a special price.  Plans to diddle the old dear are set up, but a stranger (Ivan Motherway) comes to town with intents of bidding in the auction. New plans are drawn to ensure that ‘Bull’ retains the field. But will he?

At curtain up, the director Jim Motherway gave an outline of Keane and the situation in Eire at the time. Unfortunately he also related the whole story immediately before the play started.
This is a true story that is based on the Kerry Murder of the late 1950s mixed with Keane’s own family history. Because of its ‘raw vigour’ is play now a school set book.
Keane’s half French mother was an active member of the women’s wing of the IRA, and with their family (nine children) home next to the cemetery; at a very young age, he became very aware of the poverty and suffering in the area. With no literary training Keane, a publican, wrote his stories each evening after the pub closed.
Despite winning wide recognition, the Abbey Theatre was very loathed to put on any of his ‘too controversial’ plays until the mid 1960’s, but the Abbey have since awarded him a gong. The Irish President gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The raw vigour for which Keane was renowned, was unfortunately missing in this production. There were a few good performances, but the pace was generally too slow and some of the actors, whilst knowing their lines, appeared not to react with each other. Under rehearsed?

The play was full of interest, with good character studies of life in small Irish villages, where blood is thicker than water and no one will grass on anyone else. Enjoyable.