View from the Green Room: Interesting take on My Fair Lady
Pygmalion 26
Pygmalion 26 is a contemporary re-telling by Nuala Ni Néill of the George Bernard Shaw comedy of manners and class uprooted from 27a Wimpole St. in fashionable London into the modern, urban Gaeltacht set in republican Belfast.
The entire production from Aisling Ghéar takes place as Gaeilge with English surtitles although, in truth, they are hardly needed. There’s a superb cast who delight in forging parallels with the My Fair Lady story where social standing is decided by class and diction. This interpretation, however, deals with an eccentric, Gaelic scholar (Sean T Ó Meallaigh as Prof. Higgins) whose mission is to safeguard the standardised version of the Irish language known as ‘An Caighdeán’ – the standard.
His Eliza (Eithne Carson as Éilis) is a modern young woman who values the Irish language as a means of communication and grammatical niceties do little for her. Her world is a world of rap and TikTok where communication is instant, bite-sized and largely grammatically fluid. She’s aided and abetted in all of this by her lifelong pal Ursula Earley as Freddy who combines the roles of Dolittle and Freddy Einsford-Hill as she is propelled on Higgins' recommendation as Advisor to the Government on ways to establish the Irish Language as the language of the state.
The parallels with My Fair Lady are subtle and interesting. Higgins’ pal Pickering (Jack Walsh) assists him in his effort to train Eilís as a grammatically accurate Gaeilgeoir along with the worldly Mrs Pearce (Noni Stapleton), while Donncha Crowley as Cormac, Deirdre Molloy as Bridie, Noel McGee as Desie and Aiste S Gram plays a very funny Flower Girl.
Eilís’s ‘coming out’ takes place, not at a ball, but at a performance of Amhránaíocht Singil. Her grandfather presents her with the ‘Fáinne’ he received in Long Kesh when serving time as a Republican. There are some passionate, republican speeches of self-identity and future determination of a united Ireland where all cherish their Gaelic identity, a sort of ‘Tiocfaidh ár lá’ via Wimpole St.
There’s a big house for Aisling Ghéar’s production and it’s a delight to hear Irish spoken throughout the theatre.
Pygmalion 2026 is a clever production that’s well acted and cleverly scripted. The ending, however, doesn’t quite hang together although – it has to be admitted – Shaw had the same problem with Pygmalion!
