Blackwater Angel

Published Thursday 9 March 2006 at 13:50 by Alistair Smith

Set in Ireland during the 1660s, Jim Nolan’s play tells the story of Valentine Greatrakes - a retired Cromwellian soldier who has discovered that he has the power to heal people by laying his hands upon them.

It proves to be more a curse than a blessing and after a visit to London, Greatrakes loses his gift and spirals into despair as he loses first his children and then his wife. Anchored by a towering central performance by Sean Campion as Greatrakes, this is a truly magical and powerful piece of theatre, which within two hours manages to address many of the central conflicts of a seventeenth century society rife with religious and social divisions.

Greatrakes, his house full of invalids wanting to be healed but deserted by his God, comes across a troupe of travelling actors who are staging a John Ford play in the area. This is when he meets the Blackwater Angel of the title - a foundling girl who sings the production’s epilogue. Fiona O’Shaughnessy’s turn as Angel Landis, the girl that the players had discovered in a forest, is quite mesmeric and her ethereal voice remarkable as she convinces Greatrakes that God speaks through her.

The relatively large cast is marshalled well on the Finborough’s diminutive stage and the flexible design allows for the proceedings to run along at a good pace. While this is an impressive ensemble performance, it is Campion’s powerful portrayal of a good man riddled with self-doubt and self-loathing that should, rightfully, take the plaudits.