View from the Green Room: A cracker of a Snapper
The cast of Curtain Call's The Snapper with director Mary Kelly.
Curtain Call celebrated its tenth anniversary with a riotous production of Roddy Doyle’s “Snapper” that sold out Dungarvan Town Hall’s theatre for four nights. Director Mary Kelly’s “Snapper” is packed with interesting characters and a one-story plotline that has so many laugh-out-loud moments that you actually miss some of the gags.
The chaotic set mirrors the chaotic nature of the Rabitte family from Roddy Doyle’s fictional Barrytown where nothing matches. Clashing furniture is the order of the day; twin girls constantly bicker and make-up, a son keeps falling off his bike, and a mimed dog poops and growls throughout, while a hard-working mother (the excellent Catherine Whelan) constantly knits and sews – a reminder of how hard things were in the eighties.
The core of the story is the developing relationship between Dessie (the superb Peter Daly) as father to his feisty daughter Sharon (the brilliant Róisín Briggs). And “you’re WHA?” would surely test any father struggling with a snappy daughter. Sharon claims it was a drunken one-night-stand and refuses point-blank to name the father in a plotline that keeps everyone - cast and audience - guessing.
However, the tension moves out beyond the family to the neighbourhood as Dessie’s butty gormless George (the hapless and entertaining Hugh O’Donnell) turns out, incredibly, to be the number one suspect. Snappy Sharon’s confrontations with gormless George – he offers her money to buy sweets – are hilarious but when he develops romantic notions of himself, having left his wife Doris (Fidelma Meaney) of some 25 years to shack up with Sharon in a cosy two-some in a London flat, the audience just cracks up!
In fact, there were so many crack-up moments in the play, that I actually missed some because of all the laughing… gossipy gals Jackie (Nina Fee), Yvonne (Paula Cunningham) and Mary (Neela Ryan) dishing the dirt and sexually harassing the dishy waiter (James Connors)… warring twosome twins Linda (Seadhna Power Whelan) and Tracy (Naoise Power) and their hapless brother Darren (Shay Kirwan) who constantly struggles to keep up.
Dessie’s efforts at becoming modern man resembles Del Boy’s attempts to keep up. He’s reading Everywoman now and dedicating himself to being helpful and considerate to Sharon. Oh God!... have you got cramps?... any unusual tastes?… sexual activity? His attempts to fulfil his wife’s unspoken desires on the couch results in her attempt to strangle him. Dessie’s gallant attempts to defend Sharon’s “honour” from judgemental pub-counter banter always results in bruises. BUT… there’s nobody prouder to see a new granddaughter than Dessie & Co.
Mary Kelly’s direction is right on the money – snappy with dialogue, sharp with characters and the accent completely focused on the comedy of the piece.
At a time when our evening news fills our homes with fear and war and horror, Curtain Call’s “Snapper” sent us out into Friary St. with a laugh on our lips and a smile in our hearts.
