In The Middle of The Fields – Bective Mill, Bective, Co. Meath

Writer: Mary Lavin

Director: Joan Sheehy

Not only does esteemed Director, Joan Sheehy bring Mary Lavin’s ‘In The Middle of The Fields’ to life, she also brings it home. In an almost sold out run, Geoff Gould’s ‘Blood in the Alley Theatre Company’ performs Lavin’s foremost ‘widow story’ in the shadow of her beloved Abbey Farm at Bective Mill on the north bank of the Boyne.

This production is part of West Cork’s Fit-Up Theatre Festival 2023 and so, in the great tradition of small touring companies staging plays in country towns around Ireland on a wing and a prayer, we are seated tonight within a large ‘fitted up’ tent in the grounds of the ruin.

Except this is a far cry from the hastily put-together theatres of old. Our ‘tent’, a ‘site specific structure’ and a thing of beauty, opens on to the river and the sloping fields beyond. The generous wooden stage is varnished and appears perfectly level given the terrain. Paul Keogan’s elegant set and lighting design is sleek and unobtrusive. A single standing frame, neatly lit, depicts the doorway to Vera’s house.

Vera, echoing the writer’s own life, is a young, widowed Mother struggling to work her farm. The presence of kind farmhand, Ned, about the place, helps her feel safe in the rural homestead. The long nights, however, alone with the children, terrify her. Bartley Crossen is Vera’s previously unmet neighbour with his own tragic past. When he calls after dark one evening to discuss the cutting of her grass, the encounter shakes Vera’s equilibrium and exposes the fragility of the constructs she maintains to function through her grief.

Kathy Rose O’Brien is flawless as Vera. Her polished portrayal of the fiercely independent yet vulnerable young Mother is impeccable. There is a uniquely refined and graceful aspect to O’Brien’s bearing. She has a tremendous presence. Performances by Mark O’Regan and Seamus Moran as Ned and Crossen are equally accomplished. Faultless. Movement direction by Colin Dunne, authentic costumes by Liv Monaghan and music on accordion by Dermot Dunne (Composer-Tom Lane) enhance the play superbly.

‘In The Middle of The Fields’ refers not to an incident that occurs in some bucolic setting but rather to how Lavin viewed her home. It was a sanctuary, “islanded” by the land that surrounded it. In her case, the land was the Bective Estate where the 12th Century Abbey housed not only Cistercian Monks but also Murchad Ua Maelechlainn, King of Meath. Here also you’ll find Clady Medieval Church and graveyard, an 18th Century Mill and an old bridge over the mighty Boyne which runs through it all. Lavin’s first book, ‘Tales from Bective Bridge’, published in 1943, honours this historical place.

Joan Sheehy, in a monumental feat, has reprised Lavin’s short story as a play while faithfully reiterating every original word and syllable. This she has achieved with various strains of ingenuity such as having her characters alternate between dialogue and narration and having the actors segue from one character to another and from one place in time to another. Everything about this production feels exquisitely simple and unadorned, just like Lavins prose. It is, of course, anything but.

Staging this play here, at this very special and significant venue, has created a magic that was felt by the entire audience tonight. When Crossen is relating how ‘beasts’ prefer the ‘tops’ of grass to hay, he is accompanied by a long and sustained ‘lowing’. Realising that the opportune sound was coming from cattle in what would have been Lavin’s fields was telling us all we needed to know. Nature itself was conspiring to complete this perfect little parcel.

Runs until 5th August 2023.