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The Review - THEATRE by HANNA HUDSON
Published: 10 July 2008

Tales from the old country

THE TAILOR AND THE ANSTY
Old Red Lion Theatre

NORMALLY when an elderly Irishman begins a sentence with “I remember when shoes didn’t have left and right feet”, you know you’re in for a long, complicated anecdote.
Luckily for audiences at The Red Lion Theatre, Ronan Wilmot in The Tailor and The Ansty is a far more charismatic seanchaí.
Wilmot appears alongside Nuala Hayes in The New Theatre Dublin’s first London performance of this play, which focuses on the lives of the husband and wife behind the scandalous Eric Cross novel.
The book was banned in the 1940s by the Irish Censorship Board for indecency, with one Irish Senator describing it as a “collection of smut”.
When the ban was later lifted, it became a classic of folkloric literature, and this appreciation is what this production aims to promote.
The two actors move comfortably around the marvellously dressed stage – set inside a cottage in West Cork – and the terrific Wilmot is the guide to this nostalgic lost world.
Like the Irish granddaddy in the corner of any pub, he shares his ability to tell an evocative story of old Ireland with his character.
Nuala Hayes (Ansty) provides some good-natured nagging to counter Wilmot’s steady flow of “taughts”, although she sometimes fails to match his charismatic performance.
While the pace is undeniably slow, it provides the cast with the opportunity to develop the languidly informal atmosphere.
Ironically, for a play based around indecency charges, the plot is curiously chaste; if you’re hoping for some of the smut of Cross’s novel, you’ll be disappointed.
If, however, you’re hoping to catch a glance into a world entirely removed from the busy London outside, you will be charmed.
As the tailor says: “You learn something new every hour of the day.” And The New Theatre Dublin&rsquo production makes a fine teacher.
Until August 2
020 7837 7816

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