Alternate Title The Whiteheaded Boy: a well-made play in three acts
Production Language English
Country of Origin Ireland
Description As deconstructed and respectfully renovated by Dublin's supremely physical Barabbas... the company, Lennox Robinson's 1916 comedy The Whiteheaded Boy runs delightfully amok with small-town pomposities, delusions and tea parlor gossip. The play centers on young Denis, a de facto stand-in for old Ireland and the great Whiteheaded hope of his rural Irish family. Trouble is, Denis, mom's favorite - "sure t'was like a miracle, a boy to come after those three lumps of girls" - and the object of his sibling's unremitting resentment, is a lazy and lousy student and has failed his exams at Trinity College. To stem the inevitable tide of shame, the family decides to deport him to Canada. But, true to form, he wants to stay at home and marry his sweetie, a simple desire that sets the entire clan in delirious motion.
Barabbas, at heart a clowning troupe well-known for its wild comedy and unpredictability, ups the ante by portraying eleven of the twelve family members with an antic, gray-and-white-clad cast of three who bounce adroitly from character to character. In the vortex of this "well-made play" (a popular early 19th century theater style emphasizing the well-crafted plot) is the bewildered Denis, who eventually discards his period dress for the neutral garb of the ensemble, thereby facing his, and Ireland's, future.
Identifier 1999f.00679
