Writer: Lennox Robinson
Director: Annie Ryan
Trailblazer Annie Ryan wields her creative magic once again and artfully reproduces Lennox Robinson’s The Whiteheaded Boy to suit a contemporary audience. Honouring the history of the play, we are at the Abbey Theatre where the show premiered six months after the Easter Rising on December 13th, 1916. Interestingly, the three act show was first performed as an afterpiece to Bernard Duffy’s The Counter Charm which was directed by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory.
Wearing a tunic and puffing on a cigarette, eldest daughter, Kate Geoghegan (Genevieve Hulme-Beaman) is already on stage as we take our seats. Jiggling comically to songs by Adam Ant and The Boomtown Rats, she tidies the house in the village of Ballyboe in preparation for the return of youngest sibling and mother’s blue-eyed boy, Denis (Teddy Moore), “a boy to come after those three lumps of girls”.
Ryan’s renewed collaboration with designer Maree Kearns has reaped dividends. Scrupulously detailed, a predominantly cerulean living/dining room, kitchen and hallway are an homage to decor of the 1970’s. The clever configuration of two entrances, one upstage centre to the stairs and hallway and the second upstage right to the front door creates an excellent funnel for the actors’ paths of movement.
Mrs Geoghegan (Clare Barrett) is a vision when she enters. Her floral day dress and bouffant silhouette would be the envy of Hyacinth Bucket. All credit to Sinead Cuthbert for the costumes throughout, each player’s attire is a fairly accurate connotation of their character’s personality.
The matriarch is giddy with anticipation. Trinity student Denis will arrive from the train at any moment. The silver teapot is fetched and there will be “ham, chicken, eggs, apples and a swiss roll for tea”. You see her boy is “the hope of the Geoghegans”, and he “will be a doctor up in Dublin, not a common-or-garden G.P.”. George (Peter McGann) is like “a cross old man” when he comes home from working at their family shop. As the eldest son, the burden of providing for everyone after the death of their father, William, is his to bear. He is not so enamoured of Denis and when it comes to light that the feckless favourite has failed his exams for the third time, George refuses to pay any further fees and will instead procure his passage to Canada. It is time the other five siblings had a chance to shine. Cue hand-wringing and flapping of the highest order.
Moore is fabulously flamboyant as the ‘Whiteheaded boy’. They bring immense vibrancy to the role. Anna Healy is a smooth and assured Aunt Ellen (Robinson dedicated this play to his own Aunt Ellen). Her scenes with John Duffy (Andrew Bennett), businessman, councillor and prospective father-in-law to Denis are riotous. Intimacy director Sue Mythen did well to save all of our blushes. George, Peter (Ben Waddell), Kate, Jane (Fionnuala Gygax), Baby (Charlotte Cleary), Donough (Michael Tient) and Delia (Malua Ni Chleirigh) are impeccable across the board but Barrett as Mrs Geoghegan stands apart. She is magnificent. Her raucous depiction of the birth of Denis is theatre gold.
Ryan has inhaled the homely comedy of Robinson’s original script and exhaled a funny, colourful farce. It is an enjoyable and entertaining two hours. The action does lag slightly amidst all the comings and goings. And although Kate’s whiskey fuelled, lurching trajectory across the stage to the armchair is comedic and well acted, the pacing and rhythm is too prolonged which drains humour from the bit.
To make this show relevant to family situations today, Ryan has had to push the boundaries of artistic licence – a servant, Hannah is missing entirely, the plot appears to be set in the early 1980’s rather than the turn of the last century, characters are re-characterised, as are cakes, and a resounding and thoroughly modern finale to Burning Down the House by Talking Heads (we see you Denis Clohessy!) takes us all by surprise.
Has it worked? Well, the audience is on its feet and the applause is sustained so that answers that. At the core of this production is a truly wonderful play. In the words of poet Seamus Heaney, “We may let the scaffolds fall, Confident that we have built our wall” (Scaffolding). You really should try and catch Lennox Robinson The Whiteheaded Boy if you can, ”someday”.
Runs until 25th July 2026.
