The ShaughraunTown Hall Theatre, Galway★★★★★Dion Boucicault’s 1874 melodrama is gloriously unruly: prison escapes, moonlit kidnappings, feigned murders, concealed identities, improbable reversals and frankly ludicrous plot holes. In less capable hands it could easily collapse, offend or both. Garry Hynes’ intelligent, complex production, at Galway International Arts Festival, does the opposite. Rather than apologise for Boucicault’s theatrical extravagance, Druid leans into it, finding infectious comedy in its wild contrivances while preserving the political tension and emotional truth beneath them.This production of The Shaughraun trusts both the brilliance and the absurdity of its source. The result is an absolute romp, the most purely enjoyable show possible, buoyed by the cast’s obvious and contagious delight in performing it.At the centre of the play is Conn, the irrepressible Shaughraun, a ragamuffin trickster whose wit repeatedly outmanoeuvres the villainous Sligo squire Corry Kinchela, who has had his rival Robert Ffolliott shipped off to Australia on partly fabricated charges of Fenianism. Aaron Monaghan gives a magnificent performance as Conn, refusing to reduce him to a lovable rogue. Instead he imbues the character with dignity, intelligence and the instinctive moral seriousness born of hardship. Rory Nolan is superb as Kinchela, balancing stock comedy with genuine menace as his increasingly desperate schemes unravel around him. Fintan Kinsella is unexpectedly touching as the honourable but dim English soldier Captain Molineux, whose growing sympathy for Conn and attraction to Claire Ffolliott quietly tip the scales in the heroes’ favour. Megan Cusack, as Claire Ffolliott, absolutely nails an arch, complicated, manipulative and utterly winning femininity. Eileen Walsh is, as ever, gloriously funny. There is not a weak performance. Every member of the ensemble understands the delicate tonal balancing act Boucicault demands, throwing themselves into the melodrama with complete conviction while knowingly handling the Victorian kitschiness of the whole affair.Francis O’Connor’s set is both conceptual and playful. Built around the contours of an immense Ordnance Survey map, it continually surprises as characters and props emerge through concealed trapdoors, while windows and doorways reveal sweeping views of the Atlantic or the silhouette of a ruined castle. [ Aaron Monaghan on The Shaughraun: ‘I’d vastly underestimated Boucicault. He’s kind of a genius’Opens in new window ]The production’s best image arrives during a moonlit sequence on the cliffs, when a glowing statue of the Virgin Mary descends to hang alongside a translucent moon: absurd, hilarious and, somehow, achingly beautiful. Conor Linehan’s live piano accompaniment shifts effortlessly between broad comic pastiche and melancholy with real sensitivity. The score gives rhythm to Boucicault’s constantly changing moods, heightening both the farce and the moments of genuine feeling.For all its exuberance, The Shaughraun proves more politically searching than its surface suggests. Beneath the disguises, daring escapes and comic reversals lies a play about colonial power and the tactics of the oppressed. Hynes’ production understands the centrality of the play’s politics, however lightly wielded. Conn’s irreverence becomes resistance, exposing authority as something to be outwitted, not revered. A little over 150 years after its premiere, The Shaughraun feels startlingly alive: laugh-out-loud funny and constantly surprising.The Shaughraun is at the Town Hall Theatre, as part of Galway International Arts Festival, until Saturday, July 25th