Sive – Review of Play at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin

Sive is a powerful and moving play by John B. Kearne that is now playing at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. It is a family drama with Romeo and Juliette particles but a quintessentially rural Irish setting. It is the first time that I have seen a play by Keane and I have nothing but praise for the acting and directing of the piece.
Sive is the name of a young girl played superbly by Sade Malone. She is living with her grandmother Nanna Glavin (Fionnula Flanagan), her uncle Mike Glavin (Patrick Ryan) and his wife Mena (Norma Sheahan) in a poor, remote, mountainous area of Ireland. The Glavin family is seriously dysfunctional and everything is made worse when Rua (Denis Conway), a matchmaker, drops in to the Glavin house and offers to match Sive with Dota (John Olohan), an old, wealthy farmer for a price. Mike and Mena will get two hundred pounds and Dota will take Sive off their hands.
It is a handsome offer and Mena’s greed quickly sways her to accept it. She and Nanna despise each other and Sive is a nuisance. Sive is the daughter of Mike’s sister who died soon after giving birth and her father has disappeared. The fact that Sive is pursuing education is quickly set aside. She can quit school and find happiness with Dota’s money who it is hoped will die soon.
The impediments to this commercial arrangement are (a) Sive (b) Liam (John Rice), Sive’s honorable boyfriend and (c) Pats (Steve Wall) and his singing son Carthalawn (Larry Beau), honest tinker-men or vagrants who act like moral policemen.
That’s a rough outline of the plot. Director Andrew Flynn has a superb cast and he molds the actors into some superb characters. Sheahan delivers a strong and evil Meena. She hates her mother-in-law and is prepared to sell Sive for a handsome price and do what is necessary for the deal to close. Nanna returns Mena’s hatred but she loves her granddaughter and tries, however ineptly, to save her. Ryan does a fine job as her son Mike who may have some decency but he is a greedy and inept dishrag.
Conway gives a powerful performance as Rua. He is like a charging rhinoceros who tramples all he sees before him and will not let anyone stray from the financial gains of the match including his own handsome fee of one hundred pounds.
Pats is a fine counterweight for Rua. He uses his powerful voice and bangs his stick on the floor to make his point. He gets help from his fine-voiced son who sings old ballads to make the moral point.
What cannot be won honestly can be achieved fraudulently as the hapless grandmother and the dishrag uncle let Rua into the plot.
The set designer is Maree Kearns. The action takes place in the Glavin kitchen which features some ordinary furniture but shows a very dramatic dark sky in the background. The mountains are indicated by the steep steps that need to be taken when going in or out of the Glavin house and the dramatic background canvas. The costumes by designer Sinead Cuthbert show clothing worn by poor farmers with Dota wearing better attire and the rest non-descript clothes that may be mid-twentieth century.
I will not disclose the end of the play but will note that it is highly dramatic and the production provides a superb night at the theater by a playwright that is new to me.
Sive by John B. Keane opened on January 27 and will continue util March 16, 2024, at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, Ireland.

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