The Cuchulain Cycle

IN THE unlikely, and somewhat inhospitable, setting of the concrete basement of the RHA Gallery (a far cry, aesthetically, from the author's envisaged drawing room), Michael Scott has mounted - one of the most vigorously dramatic presentations of four of the five plays which W.B. Yeats wrote about Cuchulain that this reviewer has seen in about four decades.

Wisely eschewing the "comedy" of The Green Helmet, Mr Scott, in his presentation of the other four has also ignored a significant proportion of the author's aspirations for their staging, including the choreography of At the Hawk's Well and The Only Jealousy of Emer (two of Yeats's plays for dancers), unless limited statuesque movements count as dance.

Less wisely, he has also run against the rhythm and clarity of the poetry the best quality of the pieces in his pursuit of dramatic effect and musical elaboration. The most orthodox of the four is At the Hawk's Well although some of its more poetic rhythms are mangled in an effort to keep in tune with the music.

The most dramatically effective is The Only Jealousy of Emer, although the Noh influence is carefully set aside in favour of a more than usually emotive expression of the dialogue.

On Baile's Strand is fairly straightforwardly dramatic, even if made a mite awkward - by the difficult performance space of its staging, while The Death of Cuchulain needed a bit more thinking through.

Feidhlim Hillary's Cuchulain looked the perfect hero, yet lacked the authority and the range of expression required to convey inner strength and conviction. Derek Chapman's Old Man could have been both older and more acerbic to better effect. Peter Vollebregt's Fool was finely and funnily judged, and Phyllis Ryan's Aoife was always a threatening erotic and vengeful presence, while her prologue to The Death was very funny even if it would not have met with the author's approval. Hazel O'Connor's Emer was in fine voice and Christine Scarry's Eithne Inguba was finely emotionally tuned while Andrea Edmunds moved sinisterly as the Woman of the Sidhe and Aonghus Og - MacAnally's young warrior - was uprightly and energetically straightforward.

Despite some inadequacies of lighting and setting, this is an inventive staging which deserves to be seen.