Abbey Theatre, Dublin Previews Dec 17-20 13-20 Opens Dec 21-Feb 5 15-38 01-8787222 abbeytheatre.ie

Christ was betrayed by a kiss, but Beamish Mac Coul is one of the few people to have been sprung from prison with one. That's how Arrah, his foster sister, delivered a plan of escape to the imprisoned rebel hero, passing a piece of paper in a way that made her nickname stick: Arrah-na-Pogue.

Such is the backstory to Dion Boucicault’s breathless 1864 melodrama, set in 1798, so excitably convoluted that to this day its plot can only be described in exclamation marks!

Beamish robs a rent-collector, Feeney, in order to marry his sweetheart, Fanny, then hides out at Arrah’s on the eve of her wedding! Feeney, rejected by Arrah, discovers Beamish and reports him to the magistrate! But Fanny is there and suspects Beamish to be untrue! Arrah’s husband, Shaun, takes the rap for her misdeeds!

That’s not even half the story, and the complexity of its shenanigans will make your head swim. Just as well, then, that Mikel Murfi, aided by an unbearably promising cast, is at the helm of the Abbey’s Christmas show. A director as precise as he is physically playful, Murfi has a play full of plot pivots and sensational scenes to manage.

But the ever-bankable Boucicault needs no major resuscitation. In fact, it’s usually his theatre that gives ours a kiss of life.

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