REVIEW BY BERNIE Ní FHLATHARTA

Wáltsáil Abhaile: Fíbín sa Taibhdhearc

It’s taken 95 years for An Taibhdhearc to feature their first artistic director in any of their productions in any meaningful way. . . until now.

It’s not surprising that Fíbín, the current guardians of our national Irish language theatre, were the ones to do so by staging a one-act play by Antoine Ó Flatharta about Micheál Mac Liammóir, Wáltsáil Abhaile.

The play slowly draws you in to the sleaziness of Mac Liammóir’s sexual proclivities while opening your eyes (and heart) to the shame and shadows surrounding a gay lifestyle in Ireland. This wasn’t just during Mac Liammóir’s lifetime – he died in 1978 – but up to recently. And, sad to say, that’s still true in some communities.

This play could be regarded as a capsule of the great man’s life and possibly a taster for those wanting to know more about the Englishman who became ‘ níos Gaelaí ná na Gaeil iad fhéin’.

Ó Flatharta uses a time-machine to transport Mac Liammóir to scenes from his past. These scenes include nights hanging around public toilets in Dublin city before heading home to his partner, Hilton Edwards; flirtations with musicians and historic figures; and an interview with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show.

A young Garda, who is more like a guardian angel, acts as Mac Liammóir’s guide, as he chastises the older man for failing to ‘come out’ that night on the Late Late in 1969, something that would have given young men of Ireland solace and courage.

And while Mac Liammóir –  played brilliantly by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú despite her sweet voice –  comes across as self-absorbed, he reminds the Garda that it would have been impossible to have done so, given that homosexuality was a crime up until 1993, years after his death.

The Garda, played by Daithí O’Donnell, brings his icon into the future where, much to Mac Liammóir’s delight, he meets Oscar Wilde’s statue.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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