There is something slightly curious about watching a consummate storyteller who, for the first ten minutes or so, appears not quite to trust his own voice.
Seamus O’Rourke arrives in the vast 360-seat Ballroom at the Assembly Rooms with perhaps only 60 or 70 of us occupying its front quarter, and initially he is simply too loud. This is intimate storytelling and there is nobody sitting 50 metres away who needs to hear it. O’Rourke virtually shouts at us. For an actor of his experience, it feels oddly uncontrolled.
Thankfully, he settles.
The Love-Hungry Farmer, adapted by Des Keogh from John B. Keane’s Letters of a Love-Hungry Farmer, introduces us to John Bosco McLaine, a bachelor farmer living in glorious isolation in the south of Ireland. He has his farm, his home and his routines, but what he really wants is a woman. And so, begins his frequently hilarious and occasionally rather touching search for love, companionship and sex.
There is, however, an unavoidable problem with revisiting the story today. John Bosco’s isolation belongs to another world. The internet, social media and dating apps have transformed our ability to make connections, however dubious some of those connections might be. The idea of a man trapped geographically and socially on his farm consequently feels distinctly backward-looking. This is now a period piece, and that distance makes John Bosco rather more difficult to inhabit emotionally.
But Keane’s writing still has considerable charm and, once O’Rourke finds his rhythm, there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Wisely, he plays John Bosco completely straight. The character doesn’t know he is funny, which makes him considerably funnier.
There is very little theatrical machinery here. No elaborate set, significant props or dramatic lighting and sound cues are required. O’Rourke has to hold the room largely through voice and character, and increasingly he does.
Some of his best work comes later as he slips effortlessly away from John Bosco’s Irish tones into other voices, particularly when crooning songs of the period. These transformations remind us just how skilled a performer and storyteller O’Rourke actually is.
The Love-Hungry Farmer may now belong unmistakably to another time, but there remains something universal beneath its rural Irish eccentricity. Technology might have made finding another person easier. It hasn’t necessarily made being lonely any harder to understand.
Playing until 30th August, https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/2026LOVEHUN
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 13th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating:
Running time – 1hr 30mins