A Review of Mary Kenny’s Allegiance - By Scott Anthony Kelly 29/09/2013.
The Context and setting of the play is London 1921 during the treaty negotiations. Winston Churchill and Michael Collins meet to discuss peace after the Irish war of Independence. On many levels the play works, Collins the Revolutionary played by Rory Moran Jr, who cries out for freedom on his own terms, is the embodiment of Ireland. England the Old Empire is incarnated on stage as Churchill played by Rory Moran Senior, the father, ready to defend the realm at all costs. As I sat in the audience it was clear that these two historical figures are unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. I am entertained, The players a father and son team, no strangers to sipping brandy across a room together I’m sure, may have played this game again and again over Christmas and family gatherings. History, family, mothers, fathers, duty, and destiny bind both men together.
After an initially frosty meeting the men begin to bond. They are warriors, soldiers, politicians and outlaws in their own time. They guzzle Napoleonic brandy, they smoke cigarettes and cigars, which of course have been rolled on the thighs of young Cuban virgins. They move from being sworn enemies to become something a lot closer to comrades perhaps even father and son. Churchill weeps telling of the death of his young daughter and its enormous effect on his life. Both men begin to crack with weariness and buckle under the pressure of the impossible situation that they are in. An agreement must be reached. Collins reveals his conception and discusses his beloved father, a seventh son of a seventh son, the healer, a farmer and a scholar. Churchill is a mans man, in the vein of Hemmingway, a lover and a warrior. He laughs in wonder as he admires, the vigour of Collins’s father, and his ability and enthusiasm to produce a child at an age when most men have descended into senility.
Churchill is portrayed as a retiring melancholy figure, haunted by the past and unsure of his place in history. Collins as the dashing revolutionary genius, a scarlet pimpernel on his bicycle, a talented rogue whose genius, the empire wanted to keep for itself. Inside the play we have a microcosm of England and Ireland and of a dramatic and violent period in our history. The intriguing part is Collins. How does one reconstruct a ghost? Collins was an Invisible man, the head of the Irish Intelligence network, there are only a handful of photo's and some letters from which to reconstruct him. Our Collin's is a lively one, a big man, like Muhammad Ali. He is a graceful dancer whose feet shuffle like the boxer as his voice floats and stings with hints of West Cork. Rory Moran channels Collins as we first meet him, howling down a telephone which is the only detail in a sparse office consisting of a simple tiny table and chair off stage right. Collins fierce personality shoots fire down the line as he swears and screams like a crazed war corresponded, reporting from the front line of battle. Churchill in contrast has a vast office, a butler and an impressive cellar, which he and Collins thoroughly plunder.
By the conclusion of the play they are not father and son, not Winston Churchill not Michael Collins, they are simply two old friends. Collins, a candle that burned too brightly, like James Dean or Bruce Lee. Churchill the warhorse, who eventually got a chance at a second life, knew not on that night in Hyde Park that his finest and darkest hours, were yet to come. The drama suggests, that his meeting with the Irish hero was more significant then anyone could imagine. There are no flashing lights, no gunfire, no pools of blood and no women although there is much talk of them. The writer Mary Kenny portrays Collins as a bit of a player rather unlike Meda Ryan’s “no sex please we’re Irish’, interpretation. These are men who smoke, drink, kill people and eat cream buns. There is a heroic amount of drink taken on stage, between the whisky, the brandy and the Pol Roger Champagne. Churchill is a fine and charming host, full of pomposity and raconteur. The play speeds along tightly written and if I may say so, excellently executed. I can imagine, an American tour would be a very successful venture for these accomplished players. A fine play!
