Evening star., 1950-06-14

Saints and Sinners is It's tltI
Washington's months Of semi-del
the municipal malady is incurabl
Here is an irresistible joke on
elows with the leprechaun charm
of the Irish as represented by the
famous Abbey Players. With a
sardonic jest by Paul Vincent
Carroll to inspire them, the Abbey
its transcend themselves in max
ing life the merry thing every one
seems to have forgotten it can be.
There should be law to keep
It at the Playhouse until every
one has seen it. perhaps twice,
but it would be wicked and foolish
to delay seeing it a minute longer
than is necessary.
AS good Irish jokes must,
Saints and Sinners" includes
everything, most of all be-
guiling set of villagers who are
much more prone to sin than
to saintliness. 1t is also reverent
and irreverent, mocking and
tender, mad and sometimes lightly
touched with sadness. More than
all other qualities. however, Car
rolls tale is delightfully."- funny
in its display of the universal
childlikeness of those who call
themselves men.
Saints and Sinners" is the
story of a village, Kilwirra. 1t IS
an average village except in its
possession of Ma Murnaghan, a
joyous old witch whose gift of
prophecy sets her up as a rival
OF the canon of Kiwirra's Cath
olic church.
Ma, herself a child of God and
struggling to be an obedient one,
does not want to misuse her ability
to read the future. 1t is simply
that in spite of her good intentions
and the canon's prayers, she can
not help giving the villagers sure
tips on horse races and predicting
future events by which every one
stands to profit materially or
spiritually.
The climax of her prophecies
career, and of the picture, comes
when she predicts the end of the
world on Tuesday and when the
Kilwirrans rush to unburden their
souls Of sins and their hands of
ill-gotten gains.
No comedy in a decade has had
such a fine. demented climax.
X "
Carroll and the Abbey Players,
the latter directed by Leslie Arliss,
are everlastingly clever in seeing
that Saints and Sinners" never
falters in its ironic wit. It teens
with action and dramatic insights
into a multitude of village char
acters. It tells a couple of excit-
ing love stories. one sacred and
one that might have been profane
anywhere but in Kilwirra. 1t works
out human relations in village life
not only on the immediate scene
but extending backward in time
for several decades and almost as
far into the future.
Moreover. all this takes place
against an Irish background that
was designed for enchantment.
On the surface, Saints and Sin
ners" is a romantic comedy. Its
accented characters are Michael
Kissane who comes back from
framed-up prison sentence to clear
his name and win back the love
of Shelah Flaherty. Michael is
huge, handsome and wild and
Shelah is beautiful, naughty and
stubborn. The course of no true
love ever ran more violently, what
with Michael diverted by a visit
ing English blond and Shelah
tempted by the young, conserva-
tive local bank manager.
The saints, who are few, and
the sinners who are many in the
Playhouse comedy are a funny lot
whatever they are up to. In the
village pub where they drink, the
canon's church where they are
chided publicly for their sins, the
undertaker's musty parlors, or
wherever they gather. they are
charming, untamed spirits.
Individually they are acted with
great skill by Abbey performers
who know there is nothing like
a character to catch an audiences
fancy. Kilwirra abounds with
characters; the joyous old witch
played by Marie O'Neill; the har-
assed canon of Michael Dolan;
the romantic, reckless Michael by
Kieron Moore; the beguiling She
lah by Sheila Manahan; the tor
mented blond who cannot talk her
Kilwirra suitor into the dignity of
marriage in their relationship;
and the pub-keeper who grows
rich catering to the community's
talent for corruption as portrayed
by Noel Purcell.
There has not been such an az