The Rivals at the Abbey Theatre. Review and competition.

“Another day, another play, another play, another day? Though set in the Georgian age, will it speak to a digital age? Can it hold the contemporary stage?”

On Friday evening last I saw the latest play to grace the stage at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The Rivals by R.B. Sheridan is running until September 19.

All I can say to start this post is go see it.

Rather than a wordy review at the start, let me share with you what some of the people at the play thought when I spoke to them afterwards:

Thanks to the Abbey, I have 3 pairs of tickets to give away to the performance on Friday 7 August at 19:30. Just leave a comment below to enter.

I’d love people who haven’t been to the Abbey Theatre before or in ages to get them but if you’re creative in your comments, you never know!

And so my review: It’s one of the very best things I have ever seen on stage. Ever.

I knew very little about the play before I went. The official line on it is:

Elaborate conspiracies conceal passionate liaisons, families are torn apart, and best friends ready themselves for an impending duel to the death.

It is summer, and Lydia Languish is yearning for the charming but penniless Ensign Beverley – the cunning alter ego of a roguish Captain Jack Absolute. Meanwhile her aunt, a self-professed model of virtue, Mrs. Malaprop is forced to confront her own vulnerability at the hands of a wild and rebellious Irish baronet.

Youth battles age and wisdom eludes both in this mischievous account of human nature and its imperfections. In a world where pretence governs all, can truth and love win through?

The Rivals, R.B. Sheridan’s feisty and spirited celebration of the drama of everyday life, is one of theatre’s most enduring comedies.

What director Patrick Mason and the entire cast and production team have done is take a play that, in its apparent complication, could have gone badly and created a masterpiece. I revelled in the production and the performances, marvelling at the exceptional use of the stage, the costumes, the lighting, the music but most of all the characters and the acting.

The play itself was first performed in 1775. With a storyline Shakespeare would have been proud of, it introduces us to Bath in the 1700s and to Lydia Languish, a rich, eligible young heiress (played by a wonderful Aoibheann O’ Hara), her scheming maid Lucy (Emma Colohan in a role she makes her own), Lydia’s aunt Mrs Malaprop (a wonderful character and role evidently enjoyed by Marian O’ Dwyer) and her cousin Julia (a suitably demure but feisty Alison McKenna).

Lydia longs for the romance she reads of in the novels she reads, and seems to have this in the form of Ensign Beverley, a poor but adoring suitor, someone Mrs Malaprop certainly doesn’t approve of. When Sir Anthony Absolute (Nick Dunning is fabulous here) arrives and suggests linking Lydia up with his “wayward” son, Captain Jack Absolute, the play really takes off. I’d be hesitant about telling you too much more of the story, save to say that it’s got more twists and turns than a road in Wexford and is all the better for it.

I’ve seen Rory Nolan in a few roles at the Abbey now but as the Captain, he’s just brilliant. He exudes all the necessary charm and wit as befits the role, but there’s a sense of divilment in him, as there was in his performance as Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors that brings something more of Jack Absolute from the pages of the play into real life. It’s altogether a better role that Nolan revels in and gets the audience interested and involved.

Another superb character is Faulkland played by a fabulous Marty Rea. Again, because I wasn’t familiar with the play, I didn’t know what to expect but as the rather pathetic cross between Niles from Frasier and Jack from Will and Grace with a healthy dose of Hugh Grant that Faulkland is, he’s tear inducingly funny. I spent most of the play wanting to slap him. Alison McKenna as Julia plays a great part opposite him and the two work well in what could otherwise could be completely unbelievable.

A final actor and character worth mentioning is Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Bob Acres. Really Sheridan gets the most credit here for having created such accessible and recognisable characters that have stood the test of time but Vaughan-Lawlor seems to have taken this one step further and decided, much like Nolan and Rea, to have fun with what he’s doing. He’s perfect in acting and intonation and is one of the most memorable on stage.

Though a fantastic performance by O’ Dwyer as the fabulously costumed and made-up Mrs Malaprop, I’d suggest that this production brings out the best in the men, by bringing out the worst in them. Get to know Faulkland and you’ll see what I mean.

In fact, it’s something quite singular about this play, due, I’d imagine, to the direction of Tony Award winner Patrick Mason. The actors seem quite free to use their characters and their idiosyncracies, to enjoy the intricacies of the script and the space of the stage and to have fun. Because they do, the audience does. The audience participated gladly on Friday, awarding laughter, applause and catcalls freely and appropriately, making the experience all the better.

The Georgian aspect of the characters addressing the audience was a fine one, despite my regular misgivings about this. When it was done, it was done extremely well.

Despite my initial reservations, I came out inspired, entertained, exhilarated and enthused by what can be achieved on stage, what the Abbey gives to entertainment and, of course, the story. That wonderful story. It’s a script I’ll be buying later today.

It’s particular strength lies in one sense in how flawed all the characters are and how it reflects on us as a society. Though over 200 years old, much of the same sexism, the attitudes towards women and the cultural roles of men, both professionally and emotionally still pervade. It’s quite something to see the costumed characters on mobiles, with iPods and in this day and age, introduced by the prologue but then at certain appropriate parts of the play. Somehow it works well.

Photos a mixture of the Abbey Theatre’s and my own.

Do get the programme when you go. With an introduction by the director, an essay on the piece by Senator Ivana Bacik and an informative essay on Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Dennis Kennedy, it will both educate and inform after the play. Most of all enjoy it. Enjoy the set, the lighting, the costumes, the acting, the experience. I’ll be back to it.

The Rivals by R.B Sheridan, directed by Patrick Mason is at the Abbey Theatre until September 19. Monday to Saturday it’s on at 7.30pm with a 2pm matinee on Saturday, and there’s a sign language interpreted performance on Saturday 5 September at 2pm. Tickets from €15 to €38 and available at 01 87 87 222 or on the Abbey Website here.

My thanks to David for the opportunity to review and to the wonderful Abbey Theatre staff for their help on the night. Also thanks to everyone who agreed to be vox popped. It was fun!