Paddy review: Tommy Fleming leads a sentimental celebration of Ireland as home

Paddy ★★★
Bord Gais Energy Theatre,
Dublin

The subject of Irish emigration has been given dramatic treatment innumerable times over the past 100 years. The subject's heyday was the 1960s, when plays such as Brian Friel's Philadelphia Here I Come! and Tom Murphy's A Whistle in the Dark exposed the psychic and social disruption in a country fractured by this perverse right of passage.

Paddy interposes itself into this dramatic tradition, but with a twist. It offers a musical version of the 1960s emigrant tale, but where Friel and Murphy were unrelenting in their critique both of Ireland and the structures that kept Irish emigrants on the outside in their adopted countries, Paddy offers a less problematic trajectory. Through the familiar tale of an emigrant's failure abroad it provides a sentimental and nostalgic celebration of Ireland as "home".

Paddy charts the journey of one aspirant Irishman – Patrick Murphy (Tommy Fleming) – as he leaves his loving mother, grandmother and girlfriend to make his fortune in London. The story speeds through the decades. It has been two, then 10, then 17 years since Paddy left home, and we see him repeat the patterns of those that went before him: a pattern determined by drink. When Paddy finally returns to Ireland for his mother’s funeral, he manages to find peace and reform.

The songs and lyrics, by Tommy Marren, Tommy Fleming and Gerry Carney, who also wrote the script, embrace the nostalgic mood too. Using traditional Irish instruments – in particular the plaintive moan of the Irish flute – they use the music to create tone, as well as tell the uncomplicated story.

The anthem-like ballad Paddy illuminates its agenda most clearly: "P is for powerful when put to the test/ A is for always doing your best/ D is for doing if it can be done/ D is for drinking when working is done/ Y s for yearning to see home again/ Proud to be Irish and hard working men."

There is no acknowledgement of modern Ireland or the changing realities of emigration, and there is not a single note of irony in two hours either. But that is surely not the point for this well put-together, solidly performed, commercial production. Paddy will be best viewed from afar, something the production team is surely aware of. It begins an extensive UK tour after its Irish run.

- Paddy is at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre Until September 22nd. Then September 24th-25th at the Millenium Forum, Derry, and October 1st at the Killarney INEC