Wexford Festival: Lady Gregory in America
National Opera House (Jerome Hynes Theatre) 26/10/24
Alberto Caruso music director/piano, Erin Fflur mezzo-soprano, Jane Burnell soprano, Henry Strutt tenor, Bríd Ní Ghruagáin mezzo-soprano, Deirdre Higgins soprano, Holly Teague soprano, Helen Maree Cooper (mezzo-soprano), Lawrence Gillians bass-baritone, Christian Loizou baritone, Gabriel Seawright tenor, Michael Ferguson baritone, Henry Grant Kerswell bass, Davide Zaccherini tenor, Cathal McCabe tenor, Vladimir Sima tenor.
The Jerome Hynes Theatre is the smaller auditorium in the basement of the National Opera House in Wexford, suited to smaller productions. On the forenoon of 26th October, I caught a performance of a new one-act commission from composer Alberto Caruso with a libretto by the novelist Colm Tóibín, ‘Lady Gregory in America’. In 1911, Lady Augusta Gregory, co-founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin (with W B Yeats), toured America with the Abbey company and J M Synge’s play, ‘The Playboy of the Western World’. The play had been denounced as immoral by the Catholic church in Ireland, mainly because it included a parricide (they didn’t seem to mind Oedipus Rex, but this was by an Irishman), and they were also less than keen to references to ‘ladies in their shifts’, which was deemed semi-nudity. Literature produced in Ireland about Irish people, which was under their control, was required to conform to their standards of ‘decency’ and should promote a national self-image of moral rectitude (quite different from the cultural identity based on Celtic revival being promoted by Protestants Yeats, Gregory et al.). The tour was supposed to loosen this stranglehold by taking the play to an international, less prudish audience. In cosmopolitan New York, the plan seemed to be working, but in conservative Philadelphia, with an Irish-American population already primed by hearsay to oppose the play, things went awry. The opera is scored for piano and vocalists, and was performed with the composer at the piano.
The opera opens with W B Yeats (British bass-baritone and RCS graduate Christian Loizou) giving the background to the Synge play, the controversy and the rationale for the tour. We then see Lady Gregory and the Abbey players preparing for departure. A trio of female members of the cast, Eileen O’Doherty (soprano Deirdre Higgins), Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh (British lyric soprano Holly Teague) and Eithne Magee (British mezzo-soprano Helen Maree Cooper) are fantasising about the prospect of meeting New York-based Irish-American lawyer John Quinn. An irate mother appears (mezzo-soprano Bríd Ní Ghruagáin) demanding to see Lady Gregory. Her impressionable son, J M Kerrigan (English tenor Henry Strutt) is in the cast of the ‘immoral play’ and she has come to forbid his departure. A fourth female member of the cast arrives, Molly Allgood (British/Irish soprano Jane Burnell), offering to ‘take care of him’, her romantic intent unmistakable. Lady Gregory (Welsh mezzo-soprano Erin Fflur) finally arrives and stands up to Mrs Kerrigan, undertaking to ensure her son’s religious observances while away. Mrs Kerrigan’s aria shows her doubts are not assuaged: “What will the Americans think of this terrible, terrible play”? Lady Gregory’s aria shows a comical Protestant’s viewpoint of Catholic paraphernalia. Lady Gregory is a mother figure to the whole company. Kerrigan’s dilemma, though, is the tug of war between his mother and Molly, symbolic of the struggle between two identities of Irish nationhood. Kerrigan and Molly, needless to say, will be the principal romantic couple of the opera.
On board ship, the company rehearses. Lady Gregory demands of the ladies: “Be more brazen, not demure”. An actress that nobody seems to recognise arrives in the role of ‘the Widow Quin’ in a red skirt and shawl, prompting Lady Gregory’s observation: “I want brazen, not brass: get some decent clothes”, The unknown (to the cast; not the audience) is in fact Kerrigan’s mother, determined to keep an eye on her son. The ladies of the cast are confused: “What does she want?” On arrival in New York, a trio of porters (Northern Irish tenor Gabriel Seawright, Scottish baritone Michael Ferguson and British bass Henry Grant Kerswell) sing of the honour to unload the effects of the visiting Irish theatre company. Lady Gregory receives a letter warning of the Catholic backlash against the play. The trio of female cast sing “We didn’t come to America to be bossed around by priests, bishops and cardinals like in Ireland”. A trio of journalists (Italian characteristic tenor Davide Zaccherini plus Michael Ferguson and Henry Grant Kerswell again) quiz Lady Gregory on the supposed salaciousness of the play. Molly’s seduction of Kerrigan continues, his conflicted aria confirming his resistance crumbling when she places her tongue in his ear, yet the hold of his mother remains initially unbroken. In a duet, of which there are many more, all beautiful, charting her inevitable triumph, she tells him: “I thought you were a mommy’s boy, but you have virtues … I want you” and asks “Do you love your mother or me”? His answer is interrupted by the arrival of Lady Gregory but his mother has eavesdropped and is not best pleased. Their next duet reveals for certain what we all know: “I will keep you warm in the long winter nights”. At a New York performance, when he touches Molly’s ankle, there is heckling (Irish tenor Cathal McCabe plus the other male cast members as shouters), “Irish girls are pure!”, causing Kerrigan to fall out of character and fluff his lines. Lady Gregory threatens him later: “If you don’t say the word ‘shifts’ properly, I’ll tell your mother what you did”.
In Philadelphia, the police are ready to make arrests at the first sign of immorality in the play. In a comic scene made funnier by their differing heights à la Keystone, a trio of cops (RCS graduate Romanian tenor Vladimir Sima as Chief O’Neill, Michael Ferguson and Henry Grant Kerswell again) are primed by Kerrigan’s mother to listen for the line ‘ladies in their shifts’, and specifically (as their comprehension appears insecure) the word ‘shifts’, whereupon they are to swing into action. She makes no secret of the fact that the real target of her betrayal is not her son but Molly, “the real culprit”. Another duet of devotion between the couple shows how absolute the split between mother and son now is. At the performance, the word is said, the handcuffs applied. More work for the shouters, of course. Another hilarious trio for the cops starts to list the charges: obscenity, blasphemy etc., quickly summarised to “nudity, rudity, lewdity”. The case comes to court. The 3 cops and Mrs Kerrigan appear as prosecution witnesses. John Quinn (English baritone Lawrence Gillians) travels from New York to defend the actors. When John refutes the cops’ claim that “the play was banned in Ireland” and the judge discovers that the cops did “not exactly” see or hear any direct evidence of the felonies on the charge sheet, the star witness Mrs Kerrigan capitulates: “I saw nothing; I heard nothing; I know nothing”. The case is dismissed. The purity of the trio of Irish actresses is re-affirmed and they tell the 3 cops that they are not ones to hold a grudge and flirtatiously admit to feeling “a flutter” when the handcuffs were put on. Another love duet between Kerrigan and Molly proclaims “We have found love” and the mother is out of the picture forever. John Quinn is having no success hailing a cab. Lady Gregory arrives and says: “After all you’ve done for us, let me help you”, producing a whistle, which she blows. As he is about to leave, she says “I wish you would stay and see the play”. They leave on foot together, arm in arm (that bit is definitely factual – after a brief fling their tender correspondence over the following years is on archive). A hilarious sextet of the 3 cops and the 3 Irish actresses (the girls of their dreams) confirms that they are an item (or three). Mrs Kerrigan is alone and laments: “no one loves me”. The judge arrives saying “no one likes a judge”. Feeling sure he has seen her someplace before, he asks “Did you appear before me?”, then accuses her of a couple of petty crimes which she indignantly denies. “Ah, I know, you are one of the Irish actresses, so sweet and pure”, to which she replies “Yes I am, have you seen my Ophelia”? They too leave, arm-in-arm: “You play your part; I’ll play mine”. The opera closes as the cast muse over the events that have brought them together: ‘Who can say what will happen in this lovely Philadelphia night?”
‘Lady Gregory in America’ is a feel-good one-act romantic comedy with a historical element rooted in a fascinating period of Irish history. Everybody delivers a top vocal and dramatic performance. Erin Fflur is a maternal Lady Gregory, watchful of the welfare of the young company, demanding their best work, kindly yet with indomitable spirit. Jane Burnell’s sweet, clear, unforced soprano voice (in what was a first hearing for me) endows Molly with a radiant benevolence that turns Kerrigan from boy to man. There is something about Jane Burnell’s stage presence that makes the world seem a better place. Ok, I admit it, I am smitten. Henry Strutt’s tenor is a solid romantic lead and the Kerrigan character is believable as he grows through the opera, conquering a legacy of guilt and becoming a man. Bríd Ní Ghruagáin’s expressive mezzo gives us a mother driven to jealousy and desperate measures at the prospect of losing her son, but she too finds love. A super performance. The trios of actresses, cops, porters and reporters give opportunities for great ensemble numbers including a hilarious sextet, while the scope for romantic duets is fully exploited too. This one-acter is a wee gem. Full marks from me.
Photo credit: Pádraig Grant