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| The Cripple of Inishmaan – review | The Cripple of Inishmaan – review |
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| Imagine a dramatic hero who stands no chance of being kissed "unless it was by a blind girl" and of whom it is said, by an adoptive aunt, "you'd see nicer eyes on a goat". Daniel Radcliffe is not the first name that would leap to mind in the casting of such a role. But he is the undoubted star of Michael Grandage's revival of Martin McDonagh's 1997 play and proves, as he did in Equus, that he is a fine stage actor with a gift for playing social outsiders. | Imagine a dramatic hero who stands no chance of being kissed "unless it was by a blind girl" and of whom it is said, by an adoptive aunt, "you'd see nicer eyes on a goat". Daniel Radcliffe is not the first name that would leap to mind in the casting of such a role. But he is the undoubted star of Michael Grandage's revival of Martin McDonagh's 1997 play and proves, as he did in Equus, that he is a fine stage actor with a gift for playing social outsiders. |
| Radcliffe is the eponymous hero, a disabled 17-year-old orphan named Billy Claven, of McDonagh's ingenious play. Dejected and generally derided, the bookish Billy is brought up by his "aunties" on the isle of Inishmaan. But the dullness of daily life is suddenly relieved when in 1934 Hollywood film-maker Robert Flaherty descends on a neighbouring isle to make the movie that became known as Man of Aran. For the sickly Billy the film offers a chance of escape, leads to a Hollywood screen test and takes him on a tragicomic voyage of self-discovery. | Radcliffe is the eponymous hero, a disabled 17-year-old orphan named Billy Claven, of McDonagh's ingenious play. Dejected and generally derided, the bookish Billy is brought up by his "aunties" on the isle of Inishmaan. But the dullness of daily life is suddenly relieved when in 1934 Hollywood film-maker Robert Flaherty descends on a neighbouring isle to make the movie that became known as Man of Aran. For the sickly Billy the film offers a chance of escape, leads to a Hollywood screen test and takes him on a tragicomic voyage of self-discovery. |
| Flaherty's concocted documentary was described by David Thomson as "like a parody in its treatment of the remoteness of Aran". And there is more than a touch of pastiche to McDonagh's own portrait of his chosen backwater. We are clearly meant to recognise the echoes of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, also set on the Aran Islands, in the narrative reversals and the story of a downtrodden hero who grows into manhood. And there is a requisite set of "colourful" characters including an egg-breaking termagant, Slippy Helen, whom Billy secretly fancies, and a village gossip filling his old mother with poteen in the hope of finishing her off. | Flaherty's concocted documentary was described by David Thomson as "like a parody in its treatment of the remoteness of Aran". And there is more than a touch of pastiche to McDonagh's own portrait of his chosen backwater. We are clearly meant to recognise the echoes of Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, also set on the Aran Islands, in the narrative reversals and the story of a downtrodden hero who grows into manhood. And there is a requisite set of "colourful" characters including an egg-breaking termagant, Slippy Helen, whom Billy secretly fancies, and a village gossip filling his old mother with poteen in the hope of finishing her off. |
| But, although it has its share of tricksiness, McDonagh's play wittily exposes the multiple layers of myth that surround Ireland. Like Marie Jones's Stones in His Pockets, it suggests the movie-makers have created their own fantasy land: the play's funniest scene shows the villagers feuding in front of a screening of Man of Aran and scorning Flaherty's fakery in which a supposed shark is no more than "a fella in a grey donkey jacket". Even Ireland's historic sense of injustice is sent up in a scene where the anarchic Helen, representing the oppressive English, breaks a series of eggs over her brother's pate: a running image of what you might call the yolk of colonialism. | But, although it has its share of tricksiness, McDonagh's play wittily exposes the multiple layers of myth that surround Ireland. Like Marie Jones's Stones in His Pockets, it suggests the movie-makers have created their own fantasy land: the play's funniest scene shows the villagers feuding in front of a screening of Man of Aran and scorning Flaherty's fakery in which a supposed shark is no more than "a fella in a grey donkey jacket". Even Ireland's historic sense of injustice is sent up in a scene where the anarchic Helen, representing the oppressive English, breaks a series of eggs over her brother's pate: a running image of what you might call the yolk of colonialism. |
| It's a knowing play but one which Radcliffe invests with a sense of real feeling. With his twisted left arm and inflexible left leg, he suggests Billy's disability without overstating it. Radcliffe also has the precious gift, vital in a play full of narrative surprises, of seeming artful and vulnerable at the same time. There is a wonderful slyness in the way he bamboozles a local boatman into taking him in his curragh to the movie location. At the same time Radcliffe's features glow with innocent pleasure when he at last secures a date with the fearsome Helen. He makes you care about a character who, in some ways, is a clever literary conceit. | It's a knowing play but one which Radcliffe invests with a sense of real feeling. With his twisted left arm and inflexible left leg, he suggests Billy's disability without overstating it. Radcliffe also has the precious gift, vital in a play full of narrative surprises, of seeming artful and vulnerable at the same time. There is a wonderful slyness in the way he bamboozles a local boatman into taking him in his curragh to the movie location. At the same time Radcliffe's features glow with innocent pleasure when he at last secures a date with the fearsome Helen. He makes you care about a character who, in some ways, is a clever literary conceit. |
| Grandage's strong production is graced by an evocative stone-wall set by Christopher Oram and boasts good performances from Sarah Greene as the pugnacious Helen, Ingrid Craigie and Gillian Hanna as Billy's maidenly caretakers and June Watson as a grumpily boozy nonagenarian. All these consciously eccentric characters confirm McDonagh's point that it is hard to separate the real Ireland from the myths that encrust it but, in the end, the evening belongs to Radcliffe, who has successfully escaped from the Potter's wheel. | Grandage's strong production is graced by an evocative stone-wall set by Christopher Oram and boasts good performances from Sarah Greene as the pugnacious Helen, Ingrid Craigie and Gillian Hanna as Billy's maidenly caretakers and June Watson as a grumpily boozy nonagenarian. All these consciously eccentric characters confirm McDonagh's point that it is hard to separate the real Ireland from the myths that encrust it but, in the end, the evening belongs to Radcliffe, who has successfully escaped from the Potter's wheel. |
| Until 31 August. Box office: 0844 482 5141 | Until 31 August. Box office: 0844 482 5141 |
| Guardian Extra | Guardian Extra |
| Win tickets to the show, plus an overnight stay at the Haymarket Hotel | Win tickets to the show, plus an overnight stay at the Haymarket Hotel |
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