During the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the Celtic Revival bloomed in Ireland. National activists began to incorporate historically Irish themes into contemporary art and life. The Irish Literary Renaissance was one of the major facets of this movement. Nobel Prize winner William Butler Yeats felt it essential to build an Irish theater with Irish actors performing Irish plays rather than imported English dramas. Together with other playwrights, he co-founded the Irish National Theatre Society in 1903 (becoming the Abbey Theatre in 1904). Three Small Irish Masterpieces are from this period.
Irish Rep is performing these short plays which masterfully illuminate this era. The first piece is The Pot of Broth by Yeats (in collaboration with Lady Gregory) from 1903. In this peasant farce, a hungry trickster scamp invades a home and convinces the gullible lady of the house that a stone will make a wonderful soup. Mythology, folklore and the gift of storytelling infuse all of the plays presented here.
The second play, The Rising of the Moon, is a political play which examines the uneasy relationship between England and Ireland. Lady Gregory wrote this play in 1907. Three Irish policemen in the service of the occupying English government put up a wanted poster for an escaped political rebel. Capture comes with a 100 pound reward. Down by the wharf, one of the policemen and the targeted criminal meet. Is one’s loyalty to the overseers to whom you now report or to your native lands and its peoples?
Riders to the Sea (1904) by John Millington Synge is the third and final play. This tragedy takes place on the remote Aran Islands where the cruel, unrelenting sea brings both livelihood and danger to the people living there. A mother and her daughters await the fate of son Michael who is now missing. Having lost a husband and other sons to the sea, she grieves and worries and prays. Man’s mortality and his inevitable death are themes woven throughout this piece.
Three Small Irish Masterpieces are given an excellent staging in the small basement space of the Irish Rep. The overall impact is satisfying: full of Irish flavor, well acted, realistic set and costume designs, and historically interesting. Are all three plays masterpieces? Probably not. But these playwrights and their contribution to the history of theater makes this collection very rewarding viewing.