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“That was not a feminist play” my friend commented as we shrugged on our coats outside the Gate Theatre after viewing The Snapper, “but I’m not sure I minded the fact that it wasn’t feminist”, she continued, giggling slightly. This perfectly sums up the story of the play: It’s outdated, a bit sexist and it’s content would be shot down by audiences and performers alike, if it were not for the overwhelming sense of Irishness that has seeped into it’s every pore. The whole theatre seemed to be on the edge of their seats as they watched scene after scene of the audience’s collective memories from their childhoods replay on the stage for two hours and twenty minutes.

 

“My teacher told me once that most women on the Irish stage are represented as either a Mother or a Daughter, it’s like suggesting that they belong to someone,” she continued as we made our way down O’connell street. This was evident in The Snapper a virtually every woman with more than a handful of lines was presented as a Mother or Daughter figure. The Snapper follows the story of twenty year old supermarket worker Sharon (Hazel Clifford) throughout her pregnancy. The audience sees her hardships in life as she tries to conceal the embarrassing identity of the Father of her child. Chaos ensues as she deals with prying neighbours, her rowdy friends and a sobbing Da who just has his children’s best interests at heart. Simon Delany should take a well deserved break as he is probably exhausted after carrying the show on his back for the entire performance. He managed to deliver joke after joke perfectly while his facial expressions had the audience falling off their seats with laughter. Róisín McBrinn’s directing was spot on by allowing him to steal every scene he was in. The inclusion of an invisible dog and the way that things seemed to come together last minute- as if someone was stood back stage shouting and screaming at the actors to make their cues- added to the overall familiarity of the piece. Even the set (designed by Paul Wills) allowed the audience to take in a deep breath of comfort as they saw the semi-familiar raggeded sofas and beat up bar counters. 

 

There has been a lot of controversy in recent years as to the content and representation of women in the play. When Roddy Doyle first wrote his novel in 1990 he probably didn’t even think about how women were presented within the text, but in Ireland in 2019, this is a huge topic that often feels like it must get addressed in every play staged. Certainly this production of The Snapper addressed it in sly ways. The music choice has strong female lead performers; the likes of Whitney Heuston and Blondie graced the audience’s ears throughout the preset and the show. Sharon and her friends were portrayed as being loud, bold and modern women. Both the director and assistant director were women; to point out just two in a crew strongly inclusive of females. Every little decision and detail on stage seemed to point out that this version of an Irish cult classic was being redesigned for a contemporary audience, while still keeping the nostalgia that the original story holds for so many people. It was wonderful to see five week old Annabelle O’Connor be brought out onto the stage for the last scene, and although she probably won’t remember her starring moment, it is fantastic that she got to be apart of a new spin on a slightly outdated play from such a young age, where the eighties truly meet the twenty-tens without clashing (too much).

 

The Snapper is running at The Gate theatre until August 24th: https://www.gatetheatre.ie/production/the-snapper-2019/