HIT PLAY Sunday Morning Coming Down returns to the Town Hall Theatre main stage after an explosive sell-out run in the studio last month. The play, directed by its debutant author Mick Donnellan, will be at the venue on Saturday May 28.
The show had a big impact first time out and tickets for the entire run sold out four nights in advance. Drawing comparisons to The Field, and Philadelphia Here I Come, the play has since then been enjoying a successful tour which will include a week-long run in Dublin in July.
Those who missed it during its Town Hall studio run are well advised to book in advance this time round as the storm of praise seems far from abating.
Sunday Morning Coming Down is set in the small Mayo town of Ballinrobe and centres on the McGuire household and their often comic attempts to perform as a functional family in a house dominated by alcohol.
John and Chris are brothers but live very different lives. John has just returned from a teaching placement in Italy while Chris has remained in the town to work in a slaughterhouse. Their divergent lifestyles become apparent through their conversations and attitudes toward whiskey. Joe, their father, is the local gravedigger and a chronic alcoholic.
His marriage to Theresa, the lads’ mother, is a struggle at best due to his excessive drinking. John is convinced he's only home for a week but Sharon, his ex-girlfriend, arrives back on the scene to set doubts in his mind.
The walls begin to close in as the date for his flight back looms ever closer. Chris is adamant to see his brother save himself and return to Italy, while Sharon wants him to stay and ’make a go of it. Joe’s violent descent into the bottle only adds to John’s anxiety and consistently drives the family apart.
Characterised by razor-sharp wit and a tight character-driven story, this show is a monster of comedy, tragedy, and the hilarity often associated with the darker side of a small Irish town.
The key role of the alcoholic father, Joe, is played by Galway actor Sean O’Maille and, over an afternoon coffee, he talked about the play and the challenge presented by the part.
It is a role that carries keen personal resonances for O’Maille as he himself went through the throes of alcoholism and drug addiction in his younger days before successfully getting clean.
“I did find the audition difficult because of my background with booze but I was delighted to get the part because I could see straight away it had potential,” he says as he recalls how he landed the role.
“Joe wouldn’t have been the kind of alcoholic I was but I have seen people like that; my aunt in Oranmore has a pub and I lived there for a long time and I could see the type of alcoholic I’ve modelled Joe on there; very aggressive, dark, powerful - this guy is the Bull McCabe on steroids!
“Joe has a lot of aggression but there are a couple of episodes where he goes from aggression to sadness and remorse and tears, so it’s a challenging role. He is teetering on the point all the time throughout the play where he might just stop.
“At one point he’s remorsefully talking to John saying ‘I know that’s why you left, I know I’m wearing the family down’. He’s making this heartfelt apology but five minutes later he’s slugging out of a bottle of whiskey.
“Mick Donnellan lived and worked in his family’s pub for years so he saw all these characters first-hand; guys who are house-devils and street-angels. This is a fantastic script, it’s like the old-school theatre, like John B Keane.”
If Joe is the most obvious problem drinker in the household, both his sons drink constantly throughout the play.
“The sons could be classed as heavy drinkers in their own right but compared to Joe it’s nothing,” O’Maille observes, “but if Joe got sober that would raise an issue where they would need to look at themselves. Chris seems to be leaning toward the same road that Joe went down and Joe hates him because he sees himself in him.
“In our scenes together, it’s like a young bull and an old bull squaring up and there’s always that danger that there’ll be a fight. John he resents because John is getting out. The play reveals the whole culture of rural Ireland and booze and why it’s so acceptable.”
The play vividly depicts the way in which alcohol prevents its characters from fully facing up to the reality of their lives. So do these typical Irishmen drink because they are emotionally repressed, or are they emotionally repressed because they drink?
“That’s the question,” O’Maille acknowledges. “It’s both and it’s circular one causes the other. The play isn’t a crusade against alcoholism, it’s just a story that would touch on a lot of families and there are very few families in Ireland that wouldn’t identify with it on some level. When I meet audience members after the play I keep hearing people say to me ‘you were just like my father’ or ‘ you were just like my uncle.’”
While the play pulls no punches in its portrayal of the destructive effects alcohol can wreak within a family it is also frequently funny. At times fiercely dark, and others sharply poignant Sunday Morning Coming Down offers enough ingredients for a feast of drama and a heart breaking crescendo that will resonate with its audience for a very long time.
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
