The Great Push
by Patrick McGill
Town Hall Theatre Studio
16th - 20th February 2016 8.30pm
One man show performed by Gerry Conneely,
The Great Push is the original and the greatest anti war classic, written with the clarity and authority of a man who stepped into the abyss and lived to tell the tale. Gerry Conneely’s performance captures the humanity and pathos of Magill and his comrades who went over the top on the 25th of Sept 1915.
"An absorbing sensitive and humanising portrayal of the suffering of war." Charles Medawar, writer and critic
Tickets from the Town Hall
The Great Push
Gerry Conneely's adaptation of Patrick Magill's The Great Push was first performed at Galway City museum on 25th of September, 2015, the 100th anniversary of The Battle Of Loos. The action takes place over the 24th and 25th of September, the day before and the day of the battle. The story follows the experience of seven young men as they make their way from their billet in the village of Bethune, their night in the trench and their, early morning assault on the German positions.
The show was directed by Riona Hughes and toured a number of library venues around County Galway in the weeks before Christmab 2015. The Great Push is an Iaro Production.
Performing The Great Push
The sections selected for performance are precisely those which were written under the shadow of death. This causes them to resonate. The material has a consciousness and a context which is unique in war literature. The style and tone are created , not by the “writer” so much as the circumstances he finds himself in. His perceptions are those of a man in extremis who while dealing with the events at hand must control the fears and turmoil that are welling up within him. The apparent banality of the conversations in the billet before they move up to the front are underscored by an empathy and a loving portraiture that has never been seen in literature. It is this “truth” and absense of artifice that makes the piece so compelling for an audience. For the actor the challenge is to channel these multi layered senses and emotions and to render them within the character that was Patrick Magill. This is less difficult than it seems because of Magills own sensibility and humanity.
Overview
In the same way that Magill brought the poor of Glasgow to life in Children of the Dead End, he does the same for the soldiers, both British and German in The Great Push. His truth is evident, not in any kind of sound and fury but in the intimacy of the detail. Flannerys death is heartbreaking because of his lonely and solitary life. When he tends to the German soldier he enters into a relationship that only lasts minutes, contains no words and yet is as meaningfull and profound as ever a person might experience.
The Great Push is the original and the greatest anti war classic ever, written by a man who risked his life to write it and who was extremely lucky to survive . It says just as much to us today as it did when first published ninty nine years ago.
Cast:
Gerry Conneely
Director Ríona Hughes
Sound: David Andrews
The Great Push
by Patrick McGill
Broadcast on Highland Radio
Funded by The Broadcasting Auithority of Ireland.
2 part series adapted for radio by Gerry Conneely,
Produced by Riona Hughes,
Broadcast 2016.
Cast Gerry Conneely, Niall Bairead, Oisin Parslow, Pete Ryan, Eric Martyn,
Seamus O'Donnell, Dylan Evans and Martyn Carrick.
“THE JUSTICE OF A CAUSE THAT SEEKS TO ATTAIN ITS END BY THE MURDER AND MAIMING OF MANKIND, IS APT TO BE DOUBTED BY A MAN WHO HAS COME THROUGH A BAYONET CHARGE. THE DEAD LIEING UP ON THE GRASS SEEM TO ASK “ WHY HAS THIS BEEN DONE TO US? WHY HAVE YOU DONE IT, BROTHERS? WHAT PURPOS HAS IT SERVED?” (Patrick Magill. Forward to The Great Push. 1916)
Patrick Magill
While working as a migrant labourer in Scotland Patrick Magill wrote The Children of the Dead End, a searing novel on slum poverty, set in early 20th Century Glasgow. The novel revealed, without any note of sentimentality , the humanity, social empathy, pathos and humour of a class previosly thought to be barely human at all. The book was a best seller and an influential piece of social commentary that contributed to political debate and the improvement of conditions amongst the Scottish working class.
The Great Push
As a member of the lower orders himself, Magill was ideally placed to capture the economic and social conditions of the poor . The book made him famous and led to his getting work with The Telegraph, a London based newspaper. Shortly after his arrival in Southern England the Great War broke out . Magill believed that he could do for the ordinary soldier in the trenches what his novel of the previos year, did for the poor of Scotland , reveal them as sentient beings whose lives and deaths had meaning. While serving in France during 1915, Magill contributed a series of articles on life in the trenches to the Telegraph. On the 25th of September, 1915, Magills regiment, The London Irish took part in what was to become the first of the great heaves on the western front, The Battle of Loos. The Great Push is an account of Magills experience and that of his comrades during this battle.
A disturbing tale of war
Much of The Great Push was written in situ, in the trenches, immeadiatly before and immeadiatly after the battle. His writing betrays the deep vulnerability he is feeling. It contains a truth and an authenticity that only the threat of imminent death can produce. This truth is manifest in his sudden reversions to his Glenties vernacular, the extraordinary detail of his discriptions, the tone of his conversations and the vivid character portraits of his fellow soldiers. There is the real sense that none of this is being made up. It simply couldnt be.