Review: The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith)

The tenement-dwelling Dubliners of The Plough and the Stars are right at home in this (mostly) modern dress production of Sean O’Casey’s 1926 play about the Easter Rising. So vivid is O’Casey’s dialogue and so relevant are the discussions of patriotism, poverty and workers’ rights that, bar the references to consumption and First World War trenches, this drama feels like it could have been written about any number of nationalist struggles taking place around the world today.

Directed by Lyric Hammersmith artistic director Sean Holmes, this production was first staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2016 to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, an attempt by Irish Republicans to overthrow British rule that ended in the deaths of 485 people, many of them civilians. Two years later, uncertainty over the future of the Northern Ireland border under Brexit hangs like a bad smell over this London transfer.

O’Casey examines this difficult moment in Ireland’s history through a domestic lens, taking as his protagonists a group of ordinary Dubliners, some of whom are closely involved in the Rising, some of whom couldn’t care less about it but are nonetheless swept up in the hideous action. Holmes’ production is at its best when showcasing the humour and tenderness of life in the tenement shared by Nora Clitheroe, her husband Jack, a commandant in the Irish Citizen Army, and their ragtag bunch of relatives and neighbours.

Holmes adeptly integrates the personal and the political as the characters knock back pints in the pub of the title while a meeting of the Irish Citizen Army goes on outside, Paul Keogan’s lighting design aiding the switch from drunken chitchat to rabblerousing speechifying and back again. As we get into the second half, however, and the action shifts to Easter Week 1916, the production begins to lose its tautness. The evolution of Jon Bausor‘s unlovely urban set – all creaky scaffolding and rickety plywood – cleverly illustrates the transition from unpalatable but bearable status quo to the deadly chaos of the insurrection, but the characters’ journeys are not so smoothly portrayed. Nora’s crisis at losing Jack to his comrades feels melodramatic after the no-nonsense mood of the first half and her later breakdown doesn’t ring true either.

Consistently strong performances from the ensemble cast make this show a real pleasure to watch despite the bumpy second half, with special mention going to Janet Moran for her hilarious portrayal of local busybody Mrs Gogan.

The Plough and the Stars runs at the Lyric Hammersmith until 7 April.