The people of Slovakia may soon be au fait with terms like yoke, eejit, feck, jaysus, yer man and yer wan, thanks to the inaugural production of an Irish amateur drama group in Bratislava.
As a Kerryman from Ballehighue, I grew up with a love for John B Keane and his innate understanding of the characters, humour and drama inherent in rural Ireland.
Now, I’m about to take part in a performance of Moll and I’m wondering can a new amateur drama group, set up to promote Irish culture in Slovakia, convey this same love to the locals?
This city has a sizeable scene of language teachers from Ireland and the UK. It’s almost a village within a village.
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The village has its own well-established GAA team in The Slovak Shamrocks. Now, it has its own drama group - Cultúr Slovensko. I’m not one for the Gah, as much like Tony Soprano, I “never had the makings of a varsity athlete”, but theatre and the arts I’m passionate about.
So when Cultúr Slovensko began, I was banging at the windows begging to be let in. And it worked - I have been cast as The Bishop in its inaugural production: Moll by John B Keane.
The audience we are hoping to attract to the play will be a mix of the English speaking expat community and various Slovak friends, wellwishers and theatre aficionados.
Will this mostly non-Irish audience understand references to Vatican II and Black ‘47? Will they know what blackguard, yirra and boybawn mean?
We’re aiming to bridge at least some cultural gaps by including a glossary of more than two dozen Irish terms in the programme, compiled by one of the cast members, Mary Coyne from Galway.
Because the play is very funny, there is plenty of broad humour to satisfy even those with a conversational level of English.
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Set in the fictional parish of Ballast in 1971 “after the money went decimal”, the action takes place in a presbytery overseen by the fogeyish Canon Pratt and his curates. Their old housekeeper has emigrated and they get more than they bargain for when they hire razor-shap Moll as a replacement.
She runs circles around the self-important curates and ingratiates herself to the canon by overfeeding him.
We in the cast have made much note of comparisons to Father Ted. A comedy about priests and their housekeeper in the west of Ireland? There’s a Bishop involved somewhere, along with financial malfeasance?
In a way Moll is like a version of Mrs Doyle who plays court politics, navigating the hierarchy of the male-dominated Catholic church, pitting forces against each other to secure her bit.
The characters are quite different for the most part, I yet pondered if Father Ted took some inspiration from Moll. I even reached out to Arthur Matthews, co-creator of the beloved sitcom, and he told me he hadn’t seen Moll before creating Ted.
However the similarities got me thinking. Could Moll be adapted to television for retro Irish comedy fun, in the same vein as Derry Girls or Bridget and Eamon? (If anyone reading this happens to work in TV production, drop me a line and let’s make it happen.)
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Cultúr Slovensko is the brainchild of veteran theatre actor John Fagan, who moved to Bratislava three years ago. He saw the gap in cultural opportunities for English speakers and began co-operating with the Irish Embassy in Bratislava to bring events like this to life.
Armed with funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, we’re aiming to expose Slovakia to Irish culture. We might make a holy show of ourselves, and we won’t make a tidy sum, but feck it jaysus sure it’s grand and hopefully the audiencee don’t give out.
Oscar Brophy from Ballyheigue, Co Kerry, has lived in Bratislava, Slovakia, since 2016. He is an English teacher, a journalist and stand-up comedian. He plays The Bishop in Cultur Slovensko’s production of Moll by John B Keane on November 13th and 14th at Teatro Colorato, Bratislava
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