Longford Backstage: So sorry about that Oliver, really we are

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. What about waiting 374 years to exact that revenge.
In August 1649 Oliver Cromwell, along with soldiers largely composed of veterans from the New Model Army, landed near Dublin to re-conquer the country on behalf of the Commonwealth of England.

The visiting English protestant troops were riled up with stories of the atrocities carried out by catholic royalists in Ireland. After a defeat at Rathmines in Dublin their next action was in Drogheda.
It was a short, but bloody affair. It ended with Drogheda capitulating and the Commonwealth soldiers taking no quarter. That means they killed as many as they could. We're talking thousands.
Then there was the whole “To hell or to Connacht” thing. Fair to say Olly hasn't been a popular figure in Ireland since.

Just shy of three and three quarter centuries later one Irishman has taken a small swipe at revenge.
Roscommon born Xnthony has taken the Cromwell story and created a theatre piece that exists in the Venn diagram intersection of cabaret, musical and comedy drama.
The award-winning 'Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry' bills itself as “an outrageous and raucous musical comedy about the man the English don’t remember and the Irish will never forget”, but it is much more than that.

It is, in a way, as much of a revenge as the actions of Charles II when he posthumously executed the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon who became the Lord Protector.
In 'Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry' writer and performer Xnthony channels England’s iconoclastic puritan; casting him as a fey, vain, shallow and self obsessed.
Olly has both mummy and daddy issues. He is a nifty dancer, a competent singer and surrounds himself with members of the New Supermodel Army.
He also appears to have a thing for Madonna, a particularly crunching irony for a puritan on many levels.

One of the remarkable achievements of the show was that it's so over the top and camp, yet it managed to convey the sinister elements of the Cromwell story.
In one interaction with the audience there is the uncomfortable disquiet as the protagonist initially asks if he's a bad person, before challenging them that he is not.
The story of Cromwell is particularly pertinent at present. A story of how a mob can be manipulated by disinformation. Xnthony's work really puts the fun into fundamentalism.
Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry was staged at Backstage Theatre Longford on Saturday November 11.