Bringing tragedy of Civil War to life by staying close to home

BY JUDY MURPHY

Conveying the complexities of the Irish Civil War to a theatre audience aged mostly between 7 and 12 years is no easy ask.

But if any company can deliver it’s Branar Téatar do Pháistí who will present The Table at the city’s Town Hall Theatre from next Tuesday to Saturday, February 14-18.

The Table, written by Christian O’Reilly, is being produced in association with the Abbey Theatre and will move to the Peacock stage of that venue in March – a first for Branar.

“How do you make the story entertaining for them but also something they care about?” asks Marc Mac Lochlainn, the artistic director of Branar who directs The Table. That’s the challenge that all involved with the production have been addressing since Branar successfully applied for an Abbey Theatre Commemoration Bursary in 2020.

This is the first time that Branar, which was founded in 2001, has had a playwright on board –  before now, the director and cast have devised the company’s colourful, multi-layered shows.

But Christian O’Reilly, whose most recent play was the wonderful No Magic Pill, is used to collaboration. He’s also a longtime admirer of Branar and was happy to facilitate as Marc and the actors adapted his script.

“There was a script but it wasn’t set in stone. Christian was open to testing things so it was a fluid process,” says the director.

There are no overt politics or  guns in this play about a family falling out, which Marc describes as “an allegory” for the Civil War. But it still “shows the damage that people can do to each other” when they hold strongly-opposing views.

Branar’s play is ostensibly about a wooden table, but not just any table.  Lying at the heart of the Ó Flatharta home, it was crafted by their ancestors and has passed through generations of the family.

Parents have rested cradles on it, children have played underneath it, adults have rejoiced sitting around it and goodbyes have been said over it.

But then, the Ó Flathartas are tricked by their landlord and lose it. Their mother makes a deal to get the table back but some of the family are not happy, Marc explains.

“One view is ‘we have the table and we have peace’ and the other view is ‘we don’t have peace because we have to sing a song at the county fair about how good the landlord is’.”

He likens it to the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which was too bitter a pill for some to swallow. For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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