The Cripple of Inishmaan

The Cripple of Inishmaan is a dark savage comedy by Martin McDongah in the style of traditional story telling. Written in 1996, it is full of political incorrectness and has aged in an interesting yet disturbing way. The writing is brutal about disability and race but gets lots of laughs from Helen McCormicks experiences of casual groping from the local priest!

The play is set on the small island community of Inishmaan situated off the West Coast of Ireland in 1934, where the inhabitants are exited to learn of a Hollywood film crew’s arrival in neighbouring Inishmore, to make a documentary about life on the islands. Billy Claven (referred to as Cripple Billy) is eager to escape the gossip, poverty and boredom of Inishmaan, tries to get a part in the film, and to everyone’s surprise, the orphan and outcast on the island gets his chance.

The fabrications and speculations that each of the nine characters spin in the fine old style of traditional wild Irish yarns, bringing with it an awareness that life is short, dangerous and empty to the islanders. The plot, although easy enough to follow, is a corkscrew of twists with awkward laughs as the savagery and interaction between characters takes place.

The cast of nine centres around Billy Claven (Laura Delves), orphaned and crippled since birth, and raised by a pair of spinster sisters Kate and Eileen Osbourne (played by the double act of Alice Allen and Katy Ann Perks) and referred to as the Aunties. The play includes the town’s gossip Jonnypateenmike (Simon Philips) who always has three pieces of news to impart, the vulgar and aggressive love interest to Billy is Helen (Emma Finch) and her village idiot brother Bartley (Lynne James) make up the islands sister and brother duo. The troubled seaman, Babbybobby  Bennett (Dave Whyte) who has lost his wife to Tuberculosis (TB) and ends up attacking Billy after Billy lies about having TB was nicely played. The kind-hearted doctor (Ian Clarke) and Johnnypateenmikes’s mother Mammy O’Dougal (Margaret Stanworth) the nonagenarian were both great performances.

There were some good and strong Irish accents and in the main these were well sustained throughout with just the occasional waver.  The speed of delivery of dialogue was well balanced to keep pace with the speed required to deliver a good yarn and balanced with the monotony of island life.

The high point of the play is the first local showing of the film ‘Man of Aran’ and this was staged well including actual clips from the film, front projected across the cast. I did however feel that the shop staging and costumes of this production did not add to the atmosphere or feel required to depict the style of the 1930’s.

I recognise this play may not appeal to everyone but for a couple of hours kept me entertained with the eccentricities of island life. 

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