O’Sullivan sweeps the boards in Keane’s feminist classic

John B Keane's Big Maggie, directed by Garry Hynes

Karen McCartney, Aisling O’Sullivan and Muiris Crowley in Big Maggie

Theatre

Big Maggie; By John B Keane; Directed by Garry Hynes; Gaiety Theatre, Dublin; Runs until March 12; Rating: ****

Big Maggie Polpin gives new meaning to the expression “tough love”. The newly liberated widow is a penny-pinching, violent bully who works her young adult children to the bone and dictates when or who they can marry. “You’ll soften an anvil with soap suds quicker than you’ll soften me,” she warns, before revealing ...