WATERFORD DRAMATIST AT DUBLIN THEATRE/New Play by Miss Teresa Deevy

Peter Kinsella...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...John Stevenson
Jim Harris...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...Cyril Cusack
Mrs. Marks...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   Ann Clery
Annie Kinsella...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...Ria Mooney
Roddy Man...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...J. Winter

  It might have been expected that a new play by Miss Teresa Deevy would have drawn a much larger audience to the Abbey Theatre on Monday when her new play, The King of Spain's Daughter, was staged for the first time.  Known already as the author of a couple of unusually interesting plays, it was certain that good entertainment would be forthcoming, even in a short one-acter.  In the event, the entertainment was excellent.  The little play itself, without being in any way pretentious, is original in its approach to what might be thought an out-worn subject, and the acting was in every respect satisfying.

  The King of Spain's Daughter is Miss Teresa Deevy's latest contribution to the eternal discussion of "the dream and the reality."  Dominated by a tyrannous father (splendidly played by John Stevenson), Annie Kinsella finds her way of escape through her dreams.  Those dreams are focussed for her by a magnificent wedding in her neighbourhood - a wedding with red carpets, painted barges, gorgeous dresses, and pompous ceremonial.  But she never saw the real wedding: all that she saw was the dream of herself in a similar ceremonial.  She was drawn sharply back to the realities by being late with her father's dinner.  First beaten, she was then presented with the alternative of marriage with Jim Harris or five years indentured work in a local factory. She accepted marriage with Harris after a wooing in which the thriftiness of that young man had been demonstrated in his note-book to the extent of twenty pounds, saved at the rate of two shillings for four years.  Annie would philander and bestow her kisses lightly upon the loafer, Roddy Man, but marriage was a different affair.  It meant to her "settling down," and the alternatives were five years in a factory with regular hours and hard work or a lifetime with Jim Harris.  She could run away, of course; and finally she did.  A man who could save two shillings every week for four years could be a jealous man - one who could cut a throat.  That was the thought upon which she fled. 

  The main part of the action fell upon Miss Ria Mooney as Annie and Mr. Cyril Cusack as Jim Harris, and both gave excellent interpretations.  The rebellious dreaminess of Annie Kinsella gave Miss Ria Mooney very fine material and she made a memorable character of the girl.  In the sensitive and acquisitive Jim Harris, Mr. Cyril Cusack found material almost ideally suited to his abilities, with excellent results.  The two smaller parts were capably filled by Miss Ann Clery and Mr. J. Winter.

- Irish Times