November 2011 - February 2012

Galway & Irish Tour

Teddy Heelin

Keith made his Druid debut as one of Keane’s most memorable characters, the lusty commercial traveller Teddy Heelin.

Maggie Polpin (Aisling O’Sullivan) is a just widowed mother of four living in rural Ireland, now sole owner of the family shop and farm. She is a complex figure, far from the clichés of Irish femininity which preceded her. This is a hard-bitten, uncompromising woman who puts her personal security above all other concerns. She rejects the place which cultural precedent has laid out for her and chooses to drive all of her children away rather than nurture them like a mother hen.

First to go is the eldest son, promised a share of the business by his late father and eager to take what he feels he is owed. When Maggie reveals there is no will and that the old man had signed over everything to her one year before, the son realises his options are limited and he must either leave home or live under his mother’s control. He chooses the former. As the play progresses, Maggie confronts each of her children, shattering their image of themselves until all of them have been forced to leave the nest. She always maintains the position that it is for their own good and that they must learn how hard and cruel the world really is.

Big Maggie by John B. Keane, is set in 1960s rural Ireland. It is a compelling portrait of a woman who is determined to take control of her life following the death of her husband. Shocking for its time – the play premiered in 1969 – the portrait that Keane painted of the dark side of Irish family life seems now to be eerily prescient.

SOURCE: Mayo Advertiser

Aisling O’Sullivan, Sarah Greene, Stephen Mullan, Paul Connaughton, Charlie Murphy, John Olohan