Shiny Ha'penny rolls merrily on to a Dublin triumph

THE HA'PENNY Bridge has been previewing at the Cork Opera House this week and it's a first class production. The singing is excellent, the dancing is spectacular, the set awesome and there is not a single weak link in a large cast.

The story, admittedly, could be subtitled 'Variations on Juno And The Paycock'. All the main characters have their counterparts in the O'Casey Play, with one important difference. The man who steals the heart of the local girl is a charming cockney, George, in Ireland looking to buy greyhounds.

Stephen Ashfield, as George, has genuine star quality. The highest praise I can give him is to say that you never think of him as an actor who can sing, or as a singer who can act. He does both beautifully. His lyrical unforced singing is a pleasure and his acting shows dramatic ability and good comic timing.

Annalene Beechey as the heroine, Molly, also combines acting skills with a fine voice and both have clear diction. Molly wants to gets away from the horrors of Dublin's war and poverty so she is easily enchanted when George paints a picture of London as a romantic, exciting place in the song, Piccadilly, one of the show's highlights.

John Conroy as Molly's father, Peadar, a Captain Boyle-type, almost steals the show in a bravura comic performance. He has the moral dilemma of measuring his patriotism about selling good dogs to an Englishman against his constant shortage of funds.

The comedy element has a constant undercurrent of menace from the excellent Mark O'Regan and Enda Oates as the mindless goons who act as hitmen for the Irregulars and indulge in sanctimonious patriotic waffle while literally making others 'die for Ireland'.

Eileen Reid gives an assured performance as Maggie, the wise-cracking Moore Street trader while Claudine Day, pictured above, has a fine belter of a song as the no-nonsense brothel-keeper.

Some method should be devised to give Pat Murrey (set) and Jon Driscoll (lighting and projection design) special curtain calls. There have been a number of fine sets in Irish theatres recently but the one for The Ha'penny Bridge is amazing for the fact that it is hugely intricate and yet is operated with astonishing smoothness to keep the show moving at a fast pace.

Bill Deamer (choreography and musical staging) and overall director Cathal McCabe make moving 15 actors and 20 dancers look like the easiest thing in the world.

The show was a bit cramped on the confined stage of the Cork Opera House and should really be able to spread its wings in the broad acres of The Point when it opens t here on June 10.


Matt Wolf