THE LOVE-HUNGRY FARMER. To 1 July.

London

THE LOVE-HUNGRY FARMER
by Des Keogh adapted from Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer by John B Keane

Jermyn Street Theatre To 1 July 2006
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 3.30pm
Runs 1hr 45min One interval

TICKETS: 020 7287 2875
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 June

Sex and the soil, in a satisfying account of dissatisfaction.
Is it the image of a lonely house isolated among fields, or the idea of a lord of beasts and harvest - all that rutting and fruition - being alone that turns writers to the story of a farmer looking for a woman? Eighty years back Eden Philpotts did it in The Farmer’s Wife and what farmer Churdles Ash was for Philpotts, John Bosco McLane is for Irish writer, dramatist and pub-landlord John B Keane, who died in 2002.

Actor Des Keogh has adapted Keane’s wry mock-diary of a 56-year old master of the land searching for sex. His failed escapades make for melancholy amusement, enlivened by the serious self-importance of Keogh’s impressively earthy, unimaginative figure.

Trotting off to a spring fair during the interval, finding himself the subject of younger women’s jokes, his one near-consummation foiled by a terrorist incident, McLane downs the contents of a mug and much of a whiskey-bottle, suggesting his loneliness will continue.

The comedy lies ultimately in his self-absorption. His own emotional needs constantly concern him; he never realises the need for any mutuality in a relationship. He’s not alone there, but what would be tragic or contemptuous in a 26-year old becomes merely sad for someone who’s lived so much life without realising the first thing about relationships.

Set in his ways, from the pen and diary he has on his table, to the whiskey-bottle on a shelf and his deliberate style of speech and movement, McLane is undoubtedly better off than if he did find someone who would challenge his way of living (OK, ‘lifestyle’ would be putting it too high). As the gap between physical desires and the reality of personality emerge, Keogh has fun with McLane’s advisers, matchmaker Dicky Mick Dicky O’Connor, unable to place this client, and a priest who has no time for his unimportant little sins.

A light, yet sadly-inflected comedy about human obtuseness, the piece probably works best on paper, where events can be taken fewer at a time. But for those of us who’d have missed it there, Keogh does a fine job onstage.

John Bosco McLane: Des Keogh

Director: Charlotte Moorew
Lighting: Sean Farrell, Alex Fernie
Costume: David Toser

2006-06-19 10:32:38