February 2011 Listings: An Encore for Raymond Scannell’s ‘Mimic’, Raincoats ‘At Swim’

A fluttering of tweets this evening has announced the programming of a show called Mimic at the Project Arts Centre from Feb 22-26. After doing my homework I learned that Mimic is playwright/actor Raymond Scannell’s dark satire about “exploring imitation, authenticity and what happens to a nation that leaves its heritage behind”. I saw Scannell in Druid’s The Walworth Farce in 2009, in which he was fantastic. Mimic sits the actor at a grand piano, where he tells the story of a man who’s become a professional Mimic and left a cultural climate of economic and spiritual freefall and then returns home to find things have changed. Scannell bagged the Best Male Performance Award ABSOLUT Fringe 2009 for the role.

Tom Creed (Attempts on Her Life, Watt) is billed as director in past press releases of the show, though there is no mention of him on the Project website in relation to this run. Creed is one of the most ingenious practitioners in the country at the moment, having in the past year put together Una Santa Obscura (another musical composition realised for stage, this time combining an elliptical violin sonata with a coherent theatrical narrative in marvelling a devout mystic and composer of the 12^th century) and Berlin Love Tour, the latter of which was one of the greatest shows I saw last year and for which performer Hilary O’Shaughnessy is a contender for the Irish Times Theatre Awards.

I carelessly left out mention in my February Listings of Blue Raincoat’s adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim: Two Birds at the Project Arts Centre, Feb 22nd-Mar 5th. Having seen it back in 2009 I would highly recommend it. Blue Raincoat’s production values are nailed together by the ensemble’s command of corporal mime techniques. These guys are absolutely marvellous to see moving onstage. I’ll be writing a post where people can find my review of the 2009 show and discuss the Project show if desired (I know the cast has had some changes and the show could possibly have developed since last I saw it).

So, do you think you’ll be going to Mimic or At Swim: Two Birds?

Wish I had seen ‘Medea’: Irish Times Theatre Awards Nominations

It’s been over a week since the Irish Times Theatre Awards nominations were announced, and I was too busy working on a show at the time to write my thoughts on them.

First: I’m glad to see Pan Pan’s The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (*) is a contender for ‘Best Production’. I was curious to see how the judging panel would grade the show considering its postmodern nature and the indefinite variables in its live performance (I wonder how our three Hamlets were considered in the ‘Best Actor’ category?). No show had more confident a harness of theatricality this past year than Playing the Dane, and while Gavin Quinn has carelessly been excluded from the category for ‘Best Direction’ it’s great to see fellow Pan Pan genius Aedín Cosgrove get recognition for her set design. By also throwing Anu Productions’s World’s End Lane into the dogfight, the judges have admirably chosen to acknowledge theatrical ingenuity not only in performance that is strictly traditional but also in the increasing output of postmodern work as well.

(*) The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane review:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/10/pan-pan-rehearsal-playing-dane-bins.html#more

Most prominently felt in this shortlist is Siren Productions for their performance of Medea (pictured above) in the Fringe, which has bagged five nominations including ‘Best Production’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Actress’. I didn’t see the show but I have heard good things, and would be interested to hear from those who saw it if they think it deserves such attention.