The Big Fellah

Synopsis

Young fireman Michael Doyle decides to live up to his Irish heritage by joining the IRA. He’s recruited by Costello, the charismatic ‘Big Fellah’, who wants to use Doyle’s brownstone apartment in The Bronx as a safe house for an escaped killer. But it soon becomes clear that someone is leaking information to the FBI... A boisterous and witty story of loyalty, disillusionment and betrayal, set among the Irish American community of New York, Richard Bean’s (Harvest and England People Very Nice) darkly funny play spans three turbulent decades.

Our Review:

Simon Tavener - 20 October 2010

I feel I ought to have more faith in Richard Bean as a playwright – his work is performed by major theatres, directed by talented people and is well-received by many of my colleagues. However this is the second of his works I have seen in Oxford in recent years to leave me somewhat underwhelmed.

There is no denying that he has an ear for dialogue – there are some great comic exchanges in The Big Fellah. However his insistence on taking big themes and seeing how they play out over a number of decades leads to a very episodic feel to his work. I would love to see him take on a more conventional timeframe and see how his dialogues and characters can play out without the need to constantly update the audience as to which year the script is now portraying.

My biggest problem with The Big Fellah is not the structure or over-researched politics of the setting – it is with the final scene. In a play that forces the characters to confront the futility of t...

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