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The Blowin of Baile Gall
The Blowin of Baile Gall - Acting Edition
79 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Ronan Noone
11 books3 followersRonán Noone is the author of ten plays including, The Lepers of Baile Baiste, (Concordtheatricals.com) The Blowin of Baile Gall, Brendan, The Atheist, (Dramatists.com) The Smuggler and Thirst which have played in theaters across the United States. His play The Atheist played at the Huntington Theatre Company, Boston and the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It was also co-produced by The Culture Project and Ted Mann’s Circle in the Square productions in New York. Other recent international productions have taken place in the UK, Spain, Canada, the Philippines, India, and Ireland. He has received three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards for Best New Play; an Elliot Norton Outstanding Script Award; Kennedy Center National Playwriting Award; a 2014 Edgerton New American Play Award and the 2015 Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Award for Excellence in Playwrighting and the Best Playwright Award (The Smuggler) at the 1st Irish Festival 2019. Ronán Noone is a graduate of Boston University’s MFA Playwriting Program and is currently an Assistant Professor (adj) in the same program. He immigrated to America and is originally from Connemara, Ireland.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 20, 2022
A"blowin" is, apparently, an outsider, perhaps even a usurper (I guess it comes from the expression "blowing in to town"?). So The Blowin of Baile Gall's title character turns out to be a Nigerian named Laurence who has been hired illegally by contractor/entrepreneur Sam Carson, Jr., to be the fourth worker on a construction site at a house in Baile Gall, a town in Ireland. Sam tells Laurence that he must be called Lionel while he's at work, and furthermore that he needs always to stand out of sight of the road, just in case anybody from Immigration is passing through. And of course Laurence will be paid less for this job than the Irishmen and women who are Sam's other employees.
Laurence needs the job--he is trying to raise enough money to bring his mother over to live with him--and so he swallows his pride and accedes to all of Sam's dehumanizing terms.
Sam's other employees are a colorful lot: Molly Black, the painter, is approaching middle age with a much younger boyfriend, Stephen, in tow. Stephen works on the site as well--he's a recovering alcoholic with a short fuse and a bad temper; he's also not very bright and, as an orphan who was delivered to Baile Gall from some other distant Irish town, he sometimes seems as much a "blowin" as Laurence. Eamon Collins, the plasterer, who is Molly's age (and her former boyfriend), is a sad, mean dreamer and perennial loser who has a particular history with this particular house that they're renovating: it was once his family's, until a bitter rivalry with Sam's family caused them to lose it some 25 years ago. Eamon regards it as his property nonetheless and is wicked jealous that Sam--who emigrated to America and has returned successful and Yankee-fied--has the wherewithal to purchase the place from the English divorcee who currently owns it. Eamon, further, was hoping that the job given to Laurence would go to his worthless cousin, Bulldog, fueling an immediate rivalry with the Nigerian. And he's also illegally on the "dole" even though employed, which means that in addition to the foregoing, he's constantly worried that someone from the government will turn up to arrest him or worse.
If this sounds like a lot going on in a five-character play, well--that's what I thought too. Author Ronan Noone seems overly fond of exposition, for that's almost all that we get in The Blowing of Baile Gall's first act. Rather than allowing his characters to show us who they are, they constantly tell each other who are, which makes for a more passive, less engaging theatrical experience.
Nevertheless, Noone effectively creates a powder keg, placing these five volatile personalities in the close quarters of the old Collins family kitchen. When we leave for intermission, we're certain that an explosion is inevitable in Act Two, and Noone supplies more than one, and not necessarily the ones we've been specifically expecting. His theme is essentially that grudges breed evil: everything bad that happens in this play--including Laurence's exile from his homeland--stems from a desire to avenge some perceived insult to someone's good name or family.
Laurence needs the job--he is trying to raise enough money to bring his mother over to live with him--and so he swallows his pride and accedes to all of Sam's dehumanizing terms.
Sam's other employees are a colorful lot: Molly Black, the painter, is approaching middle age with a much younger boyfriend, Stephen, in tow. Stephen works on the site as well--he's a recovering alcoholic with a short fuse and a bad temper; he's also not very bright and, as an orphan who was delivered to Baile Gall from some other distant Irish town, he sometimes seems as much a "blowin" as Laurence. Eamon Collins, the plasterer, who is Molly's age (and her former boyfriend), is a sad, mean dreamer and perennial loser who has a particular history with this particular house that they're renovating: it was once his family's, until a bitter rivalry with Sam's family caused them to lose it some 25 years ago. Eamon regards it as his property nonetheless and is wicked jealous that Sam--who emigrated to America and has returned successful and Yankee-fied--has the wherewithal to purchase the place from the English divorcee who currently owns it. Eamon, further, was hoping that the job given to Laurence would go to his worthless cousin, Bulldog, fueling an immediate rivalry with the Nigerian. And he's also illegally on the "dole" even though employed, which means that in addition to the foregoing, he's constantly worried that someone from the government will turn up to arrest him or worse.
If this sounds like a lot going on in a five-character play, well--that's what I thought too. Author Ronan Noone seems overly fond of exposition, for that's almost all that we get in The Blowing of Baile Gall's first act. Rather than allowing his characters to show us who they are, they constantly tell each other who are, which makes for a more passive, less engaging theatrical experience.
Nevertheless, Noone effectively creates a powder keg, placing these five volatile personalities in the close quarters of the old Collins family kitchen. When we leave for intermission, we're certain that an explosion is inevitable in Act Two, and Noone supplies more than one, and not necessarily the ones we've been specifically expecting. His theme is essentially that grudges breed evil: everything bad that happens in this play--including Laurence's exile from his homeland--stems from a desire to avenge some perceived insult to someone's good name or family.
June 8, 2020
A shocking narrative of racism and xenophobia. Taking place in Ireland, we can pretend that the actions that occur in the play are those of a far off land, but we are forced to face the reality that much less than an ocean separates us from these ideals. At times, the Irish slang comes across as overbearing, but perhaps that's only true for me. Also addressing jealously and love, this play runs the gamut of the good and bad in humanity.
October 18, 2009
A really interesting and engaging play, Noone returns to his small Irish town once again to depict various issues facing the Irish people in the modern world. Although it deals with some different problems-- immigration (legal and illegal), racism, and public welfare-- as well as some familiar ones from 'The Lepers of Baille Gall'-- love, masculinity, and poverty-- 'The Blowin of Baille Gall' is just as depressing and has just as 'tragic' an ending as the earlier play. 'The Blowin' does not have the same slightly abstract staging as 'The Lepers,' and the characters strike the reader as just as real and poignantly as in Ronan Noone's first play. This play is quite relevant at the time here in the US as we are still trying to deal with illegal immigration and the contentious issues that evolve from that (jobs, healthcare, etc.). It is also assuredly still relevant in Ireland and definitely in the UK as the BNP has been reworking its image and gained a seat in the European Parliament representing Yorkshire. The play does not try to be subtle, and it gains much of its power from that. Although it is very in your face, it does strike as trying too hard or obtuse like many other plays, books, etc. that are so forthright. Highly recommended, and I would very much like to work on a production of this script.
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February 14, 2017Very powerful play by Irish playwright.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews