Hinterland by Sebastian Barry
(Royal National Theatre, Abbey Theatre,Dublin and Out of Joint)
Oxford Playhouse June 4th - 8th

Principally “Hinterland” is about the role of power and how it may destroy of the people around it. However, given time to digest the full content of the play, many layers emerge from Barry’s brilliant play. The playwright, now 47, grew up in an environment where political figures were frequently revealed to have betrayed their public. This experience provided Barry with the basis of the plot; a statesman and father finds himself revisited by a dubious past. As with Barry’s earlier plays (“Our Lady of Sligo” and “The Steward of Christendom” there is a fusion of the public and the private. In “Hinterland” Barry explores his relationship with his father at the same time as examining the political career of a fictional character, Johnny Silvester, who exhibits striking similarities to the former Irish Taioseach (or Prime Minister) Charles Haughey. In order to convey recent history, Barry mixes bedroom farce and drama. The playwright places humour next to sadness in one situation in particular; when a suicide attempt turns out to be something entirely different.

Barry is a published poet and the language used throughout the play is lyrical and elegant. Dearbhla Molloy who plays Silvester’s long suffering wife, Daisy has a beautiful melody to her speaking voice and describes their marital deterioration sensitively with lines such as “rumours coming under the door like winter” and “I’m sick of being a passenger on your leaky old boat”. Conversely, Molloy is explosive when referring to Connie, the woman Silvester had an affair with for 15 years, forcing out such lines as “she took all my holidays from me” with the power of a cruise missile.

Patrick Malahide, whose previous work includes “Billy Elliot” and “Middlemarch”, portrays the Irish statesman, Silvester, to perfection. He embraces Irish culture 100% in his performance, complete with Irish folk songs, a dry humour, a burst of Irish folk dancing and swearing like a trouper. Perhaps the ultimate expression of Irish identity is expressed by Malahide’s character at the end of the play, when the beleaguered Silvester builds a barricade to face his enemies, even when the chance of victory is slim.

For me, the essence of “Hinterland” comes early in the second act when a student arrives to interview Silvester for her undergraduate term paper. Lucianne McEvoy who plays the character Aisling, loses her “little girl lost” routine midway in the interview when she can see it cuts no ice with Silvester. Aisling asks him straight out, “Where are the good men?” Whilst I have sympathy for Silvester, who is left with his loneliness, tribunals and ill health, Aisling’s question is one many of us still ask of the political world. Such a strong all round performance is testament to the awesome directional skills of Max Stafford-Clark. For two hours of theatre that you will never forget, choose “Hinterland”.

by Lita Doolan 04.06.02