Musings Listings: June 2011

June marks the anticipated return of critically acclaimed companies who have been absent, some for months, some for over a year.

Brokentalkers, The Corn Exchange and THISISPOPBABY all head south for the Cork Midsummer Festival. Brokentalkers’ The Blue Boy – a piece that uses music and movement to look at the experiences of children incarcerated at Catholic residential care institutions (trailer: http://vimeo.com/21657110) – will be presented as a free-ticketed ‘work-in-progress’ at the Granary Theatre (Jun 24). The full shilling is expected to be staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival in October. The world premiere of Man of Valour (pictured above) – the newest show from The Corn Exchange – stars Paul Reid as an office drone who imagines heroic adventures. Annie Ryan and Michael West also lend their expertise as the company returns to its Commedia dell’Arte foundation in this latest outing. Catch the show at the Everyman Palace (Jun 21-26). THISISPOPBABY bring Neil Watkins’ spirited dynamo The Year of Magical Wanking to the Half Moon Theatre (Jun 23-25). Watkins’ story living as a 33-year-old homosexual with a Jesus complex is a “brave and heartbreaking exploration of porn addiction, destructive sexual behaviour, Catholic guilt, and family heartbreak” (trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKUe2dJiSAM)

JOLT, ‘Creative Quickies’: The Galway Machine Turns You On

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

May 27-28

As the first season of JOLT draws to a close this weekend, some of Galway’s indie theatre companies have come together to put on an evening of Creative Quickies – a line-up of 10 minute extracts from ‘works in progress’.  A few thoughts on the night coming up after the jump ...

The Staging and Boundaries of Sufjan Stevens’ 'Age of Adz'

To change gears a little, I was at Sufjan Stevens’ show in the Olympia this week and was really struck by his use of performance space. A few thoughts on the event coming up just as soon as I tell a volcano I’m insecure ...

Calipo Theatre, ‘Pineapple’: Silver Spoons

Draíocht, Blanchardstown, Dublin

May 5-6

My review of the terrific Pineapple coming up just as soon as these Custard Creams stare me out of it ...

Musings Listings: May 2011

With ceaseless touring productions, three performance festivals, and two renovated venues; May is one very busy month for theatre.

We’ll start with the Abbey. Pygmalion has mustered many good reviews since starting its run. George Bernard Shaw’s comedy is a ‘Taming of the Shrew’-style story about a linguistics professor’s efforts to turn an impoverished flower girl into a lady under the pretence of a bet. The production runs until June 11. It will be accompanied by Perve on the Peacock stage from May 25 – the last instalment of the Abbey’s quartet of new plays this year. Concept-wise, Gregg’s play always sounded to me to be the most intriguing of the four – an overambitious film student and his controversial project that will “question his idealism and turn his life and that of his family upside down”.

Across town, The Beauty Queen of Leeane runs at the Gaiety May 11-June 4. Martin McDonagh’s devilish comedy is about a lonely middle-aged spinster and her manipulative mother. Beauty Queen has been on the go for fifteen years now, and with numerous awards under its belt, I’m sure this production will maintain the play’s acclaim with Rosaleen Linehan and Derbhle Crotty heading the cast.

My pick of the month is Pineapple at Axis Ballymun May 11-14. The play is an occasion in itself, as it unites Irish talents such as writer Philip McMahon (Alice in Funderland, All Over Town), director David Horan (Moment), and great performers such as Janet Moran (Freefall, No Romance), Nick Lee (Delirium, DruidSynge) and Caoilfhionn Dunne (10 Dates With Mad Mary, Christ Deliver Us!). McMahon’s play about the community in the Ballymun Flats is darkly comic and sweetly disarming (my review of it will be up shortly).

Abbey Theatre & Trinity College Dublin, A Reading of Thomas Kilroy’s ‘Blake’

I went to the reading of Blake – the anticipated new play by Thomas Kilroy – in the Samuel Beckett Theatre on Saturday night. I originally intended to write a detailed piece on the play but decided my thoughts would be better left published for if/when the play is staged. This way, I’m not spoiling it for anyone who wasn’t at the reading or would prefer to wait and see a full-scale commissioned production.

What I will say about the play is that it is a Kilroy piece through-and-through: a drama about an individual suffering the brunt of the consequences of their culture’s thoughts and actions. Kilroy’s play is about the English poet, painter, and mystic William Blake, and his confinement in a medical institution for “lunatics”. The play is set at the dawn of the Romantic age, where the fancies of Blake’s visions receive no welcome. England’s concern is solely with fighting off Napoleon in the name of “civilization”, and inventive flights of the imagination such as these are only harmful to the practical inquisitions of the Enlightenment period. William’s wife Catherine pleads desperately for her husband’s release, and the bargains put before her test the extraordinary love between her and her husband.

Kilroy’s writing is as beautiful as ever, bequeathing the ironies of his story with poetic delivery. His hand for humour still tickles the gravity of his characters’ climates. The expressionist style that he always took fancy to in his scene descriptions still beats through his work, though not as prominent as in Talbot’s Box. With Blake, it is a song that peeks through the play’s realist settings. Like Christ Deliver Us!, the outcome of the story does take an expressionist route. I personally found the “We live under the sign of a question mark” climax of Christ Deliver Us! to be the play’s weakest move, so it is with such caution that I treat Blake’s endgame. We will see.

This reading was put together by Irish theatre director supreme Patrick Mason (whose previous collaborations with Kilroy include Talbot’s Box and The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde). His cast of seven is filled with very likeable actors with impressive resumés, among them: Jim Norton (Tony winner for his performance in Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer), Barbara Brennan (of Hugh Leonard’s The Lily Lally Show fame), Cathy Belton and Michael McElhatton (both of whom had supporting roles as Mr. And Mrs. Grainger in Kilroy’s Christ Deliver Us! last year), and Brian Bennett (of 21^st century pioneers The Company). I really hope that as much of this creative team remains if/when the play is commissioned, especially Norton and Brennan, who had brilliant chemistry as Mr and Mrs Blake.

As for a commissioned production of Blake in the near future: nothing has been announced yet. I would say the odds are in our favour. Kilroy is on the board of the Abbey Theatre after all. Here’s hoping that it’s sometime in 2012.

What did everybody else think? 

The Ark & Theatre Lovett, ‘The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly’: Are the Kids Alright?

The Peacock, Dublin

April 12-30

My review of The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly coming up just as soon as some of my greatest sadnesses are alleviated by goats ... 

Shaun Dunne and Talking Shop Ensemble, ‘I Am A Home Bird (It’s Very Hard)’: Hometown Glory

Project Arts centre, Dublin

Apr 6-16

My review of I’m A Home Bird (It’s Very Hard) coming up just as soon as I use pearl rice in my risotto ...

Musings Listings: April 2011

Where to start, where to start? The theme of April 2011 seems to be contemporary writing.

First off: there are four nationwide-touring productions written by acclaimed contemporary voices at the go at the moment. Fishamble bring Sebastian Barry’s award-winning The Pride of Parnell Street – “a series of intercutting monologues [in which] Janet and Joe chart the intimacies of their love and the rupturing of their relationship. An intimate, heroic tale of ordinary and extraordinary life on the streets of Dublin” – to Siamsa Tíre, Tralee (Apr 27-28); and Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise (Apr 30) before more dates next month. Fresh from a successful run in the Bush Theatre in London, Tall Tales Theatre bring Deirdre Kinahan’s Moment – a play about an Irish man’s homecoming to his family after serving a prison sentence – will be in Draíocht, Blanchardstown (Apr 6); Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (Apr 8-9); Civic Theatre, Tallaght (Apr 12-16); Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (Apr 20-21); and Town Hall Theatre, Galway (Apr 26-30). Dermot Bolger’s new play The Parting Glass is a sequel to his 1990 play In High Germany, which told the story of three young Irish men and their decisions to emigrate. Bolger brings one of those men back in The Parting Glass, returning home to a post-boom Ireland. The play runs at the Project Arts Centre until Apr 16, and then heads to the Riverbank for Apr 21. Lastly, Decadent Theatre’s production of The Quare Land – “a hilarious Celtic Tiger parable” in which a man negotiates from his bathtub with a NAMA developer to sell his field – will be at the Riverbank Apr 17.

My pick of the month is the play reading of Thomas Kilroy’s Blake – a new play about romanticist William Blake – at the Samuel Beckett Theatre Apr 30. Personally, I think Kilroy is the best playwright in the country, capable of capturing the cultural consciousness of a given moment in history with sweet and brutal poetic sensitivity, as seen in the likes of Talbot’s Box and Christ Deliver Us!. Furthermore, his depictions of real life individuals such as wartime apostles Brendan Bracken and William Joyce (Double Cross), Oscar Wilde’s wife Constance (The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde) and his lover and poet Lord Alfred Douglas (My Scandalous Life) have been rather brilliant, and thus it is with great assurance that Blake should be something special. The reading takes place as part of a two day ‘Across the Boundaries: Talking about Thomas Kilroy’ event in Trinity College Dublin, Apr 29-30, where you can go to a few talks free admission. Irish veteran director Patrick Mason, who has brought to stage the greatest Irish plays of the last half a century, and who previously staged Kilroy’s Talbot’s Box and The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde, is helming the reading. Tickets are available from the Abbey box office for a super reasonable 6 euro!  

 Lynne Parker of Rough Magic gusto brings Finegan Kruckemeyer’s acclaimed The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly (Apr 12-30, pictured above) to the Abbey’s Peacock stage (which has been home to some exciting productions as of late). Louis Lovett sings as the gloriously off-key Peggy O’Hegarty, who takes off on an imaginatively inventive adventure to save the day. Child-friendly and tickets available at the Abbey-cheap price of 15 euro (10 concession).

Meanwhile in the West, Galway ensemble Mephisto bring Tara McKevitt’s P.J. O’Connor winner Grenades (Apr 12-16) to the Town Hall as part of this year’s Cuirt Festival of Literature. McKevitt’s play about a young girl’s experiences living in Northern Ireland is not only incredibly funny and bittersweet, but also ascends political or retrospective pit-traps. Definitely worth a look.

Drogheda’s Calipo Theatre Company bring Philip McMahon’s (one half of the fantastic THISISPOPBABY) new play Pineapple to the Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Apr 29-May 1. The story about two Ballymun youths is described as a “tough and tender drama about love and survival” and is performed by an impressive cast including Janet Moran (Freefall, No Romance) and Nick Lee (Delirium, The Passing).

Talking Shop Ensemble present I Am a Homebird (It’s Very Hard) at the Project Arts Centre until Apr 16. The play’s focus is on the current rate of young Irish people having no choice but to emigrate. Along with The Parting Glass, the Project Arts Centre is currently a site of disposition about the trends of emigration going on in the present.

As for older texts: productions of Lorca’s Blood Wedding (Apr 18-20) and Peter Pan(s) (Apr 19-21) also take to the Project Arts Centre. Four of Beckett’s short plays (Beckett x4) come to the Focus Theatre, Dublin (Apr 11-23). An impressively-cast production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof celebrates the centenary of Tennessee Williams in the Gate all month. And finally, the Abbey present their first ever rendition of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (Apr 27-Jun 11). Is it strange that the Abbey have not done Pypmalion before now (they do describe it as Shaw’s “most popular play)? This comedy is a ‘Taming of the Shrew’-style story about a linguistics professors efforts to turn an impoverished flower girl into a lady under the pretence of a bet.

Also: if you are interested in donating to the Arts, toddle on to fundit.ie and give a couple of bob towards Brokentalkers’ The Blue Boy and THISISPOPBABY’s The Year of Magical Wanking.

What are you thinking of seeing this month?

Second Age, ‘Hamlet’: The Tale of the Two Princes

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Mar 29-Apr 1

My review of Hamlet coming up just as soon as I beseech you instantly to visit my too much changed son ...

Brokentalkers, ‘The Blue Boy’

Dublin duo Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan got off to a rough start. Their dedication to finding new theatrical forms started with a radical restaging of Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which landed them in a spot of trouble with Friel’s lawyers. The experience obviously didn’t discourage the Brokentalkers as they went on to make some of the most imaginative and emotionally resonant work in the past few years. Their back catalogue includes Track – an audio-guided tour of Dublin from an immigrant’s perspective; the Dublin Youth Theatre collaboration This Is Still Life, which implored the melodramatics of youth with sweet sentiment; the long-distance two-hander In Real Life – a moving portrait of human connection that was delicately intimate despite one of the leads skyping from Belgium; and the gorgeous Silver Stars, which featured a male choir that told of the real-life experiences of gay men in Ireland. Cannon and Keegan have honed a stagecraft that fantastically dances not only with our conventional expectations of ‘theatre’ but also with the experiences inherent in contemporary life. With The Blue Boy, the group are looking at the societal imprint of children’s experiences whilst incarcerated at Catholic residential care institutions.

Despite their portfolio, funding bodies are criminally negligent of supporting Brokentalkers, leaving the fate of The Blue Boy uncertain. Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival seem to want it as part of their programme in October, and thus both have launched an initiative with www.fundit.ie  appealing to the public for donations, where they hope to accomplish their 3,000euro target in five weeks. If the target isn’t reached, Brokentalkers cannot produce the show.

I do believe that The Blue Boy is a very important project. If you are wanting to support the arts in some capacity I would recommend starting here.

For more details –

http://www.fundit.ie/project/the-blue-boy-in-development

 Trailer for The Blue Boy –

http://vimeo.com/15835250

Excuses, excuses ... [Redux] and Musings Listings: March 2011

As happened in November, my self-disciplined ways suffered a bit of a setback this month. However, we’re back up and running and expect some regular postings here in the next few weeks as there are a few shows I am planning on going to. This month’s listings are astronomically late, but better late than never right?

There is a lot to admire in March 2011 as the month mainly pays its dues to original and new theatre. This is seen on the utmost funded level with the Abbey’s presentation of three new plays by two contemporary voices. The institution’s diluted commitment to original work is one of its sorest subjects, and rarely do we have the opportunity to see new Irish writing on its stage (Thomas Kilroy’s Christ Deliver Us!, Michael West’s Freefall, and Carmel Winters’ B for Baby are the only examples in 2010 I can think of). Nancy Harris’ Bad Romance (until Apr 2) is described as a “tender and funny tale about our secret selves [that] observes the search for connection in a fractured world”. Female authors and writing that is distinctively ‘female’ is extremely under-developed in this country, with Marina Carr the most notable author of recent times. The very circumstance of having Harris’ work on stage may be cause for celebration but let’s hope that she’s capable of a discourse that is engaging and insightful that will want us to keep her around. Also: Wayne Jordon (Ellamenope Jones) and Janet Moran (Freefall) are attached so it could be a nice show.

The other two plays in the Abbey come from scribe Paul Mercier. I am curious as to why Mac Chongail is investing this heavily in Mercier to supply the goods. His past writing for the company must have brought home the gold. First we have The Passing (Mar 11-Apr 16) which is a story about a woman revisiting her relationship with where she grew up when her parents’ house goes for sale. The East Pier (Mar 18-Apr 16) then is a two-hander with Andrea Irvine and Don Wycherley described as “a chance encounter between two stray souls who discover they are still as deeply connected as they are strangers to one another”.

I’d probably be more inclined to go to THEATREclub’s ‘Spirit of the Fringe’ winner Heroin (Mar 24-26, pictured above) at the Axis Theatre in Ballymun. The show is the product of co-founder Grace Dyas’ research into the social history of heroin-use in Dublin and society’s wilful ignorance of it. 

Night of the Danes: Irish Times Theatre Awards

The best of Irish theatre was celebrated last Sunday in Vicar St. I don't have much to add to my thoughts on the shortlist (link to that post below) other than it's fantastic to see Pan Pan win 'Best Production' for The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane and Aedín Cosgrove (pictured above) to pick up the 'Best Set' trophy. The judges showed an open mind with the 'Best Production' category this year, with Pan Pan and Anu Productions representing the postmodern practice that's growing in presence with the likes of The Company, THEATREclub and others who are finding new ways to engage with theatre space. Before all of them there was Pan Pan (who turn sixteen this year, I think), and Sunday was a historic win not just for them but the generation of artists their work has inspired over the years. It's exciting to be a theatre maker in this country right now.

I'm also happy to see:

• Laurence Kinlan pick up 'Best Supporting Actor' for his role as Christ Deliver Us! tragic son Mossy Lannigan. With an impressive range, Kinlan will be making crowds laugh or shed tears in the many years to come. 

• Olwen Fouéré comes out on top in a very competitive 'Best Actress' category for her performance in Rough Magic and The Emergency Room’s joint effort: Sodome, My Love.

• 'Judges Special Award' given to Project Brand New for their dedication and support to encourage innovative new work.

What does everybody else think?

My post on Shortlist:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2011/01/wish-i-had-seen-medea-irish-times.html#more

Irish Times list of nominees :

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pursuedbyabear/2011/01/15/the-irish-times-theatre-awards-shortlist-december-2010/

Irish Times list of winners:

http://www.irishtimes.com/events/theatreawards/currentwinners/

Raymond Scannell, ‘MIMIC’: A Sweet Phenomenon

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Feb 22-26

My review of the wonderful Mimic coming up just as soon as I paint a masterpiece sorta thing …

Side-Show Productions, 'Dreams of Love': Buttercup, Baby

 

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Feb 24-26

Worth mentioning that tonight is the last night of Dreams of Love in the Town Hall. I wasn’t able to see the finished performance but did get to a dress rehearsal during the week. Very funny and surprising at times. Here’s the press release:    

... a girl, two guys, are locked in a revolving love triangle. The spectacle runs through various guises from Romeo and Juliet's amateur dramatics to Youtube melodrama and on to a scene where a King demands a sandwich ...

Feel free to share thoughts and impressions in the comments section.

Blue Raincoat, 'At Swim: Two Birds': Clown Nose

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Feb 21-Mar 5

I mentioned in an earlier post that I’d do a piece on Blue Raincoat’s stage adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s At Swim: Two Birds, which is now showing at the Project. The show has been on its feet since the winter of 2009, which is when I saw it in the Raincoat’s Factory Space in Sligo. Below is a review of that performance (written back when I first started writing reviews. This is the blogger equivalent of baby pictures). Feel free to use the comments section below to share your thoughts. 

Theatrecorp, ‘The Glass Menagerie’: Glass Slipper … anyone?

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Feb 15-19

My review of The Glass Menagerie at the Town Hall coming up just as soon as I renew my subscription to The Homemaker’s Companion …

Nyree Yergainharsian, ‘Where Do I Start?’: Pirandello & Ponies

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Feb 15-16

A few thoughts on Where Do I Start? coming up just as soon as I hate Ryanair …

Waterdonkey, 'The Very Best of John Lennon'

Again: another shameful use of this blog. I will be performing onstage tonight at the Project Arts Centre at 7 in Waterdonkey Theatre's 'The Very Best of John Lennon'. The show is featured as part of THEATREclub's 'THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: VOL II' festival. Check out the Project website for more information.

Here is the show description, and feel free to share your thoughts and impressions on the show in the comments section below.



This is where we are ...

PRISCILLA is inspired. ROSE is doing our hair. CHRIS is reading the news. ZITA is picking flowers. JOHN is looking for the truth. That is until we all eventually return to that moment which we can never leave behind for good.

An arpeggio of love, fortune, loss, and hope ... this is a world touched by John Winston Lennon.

Waterdonkey presents a special theatrical event inspired by the legendary musician's presence and influence, not just in our own lives, but in that of the fabric of contemporary society itself.

Lennon is a force stronger than gravity.
Join us in its freedom.

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?

Musings Listings: February 2011

With many of the country’s greatest theatre acts taking off these days to tackle America with Culture Ireland’s ‘Imagine Ireland’ scheme, Dublin theatre audiences appear to have been left at the mercy of oestrogen-empowered comedies such as Calendar Girls in the Grand Canal or Adele King’s Grumpy Old Women in the Gaiety. While these large-scale, internationally-toured productions are sure to bring in the big bucks, there are a lot of local performances to be excited about also. Indeed, February 2011 can be characterised as a month of Irish theatre where the parents have gone away on business and the kids are now out to play.

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.

The Company, ‘As You Are Now So Once Were We’

Peacock Stage, Abbey Theatre, Dublin

Jan 25 – Feb 5

I sang high praise of The Company’s excellent As You Are Now So Once Were We in my ‘Best of Irish Theatre 2010’ over Christmas (a link to that review is at the bottom of this post), and the show comes back tonight on the Peacock Stage for a run until Feb 5. I’m going to use the comments section below as a platform for discussing the show.

The Company invited me to their dress rehearsal today and the show is as fantastic as I remembered. As You Are … is an artifice composed of friendship, cardboard boxes, meticulous performances, charm, and an undercurrent of philosophical hues that are gorgeously imagined.

Go.

Seriously.

 Original Review for ‘As You Are …’:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-of-irish-theatre-2010-5-company-as.html#more

Trailer for ‘As You Are …’:

http://vimeo.com/18954382

Wrong Curtain, ‘Cíosa Le Gear’

Cíosa Le Gear, The play I’ve directed with Wrong Curtain, opens tonight in the Town Hall, Galway and runs until Friday 21^st. I’m always looking for feedback so please feel free to use the comments section below to share your thoughts. Here is the show’s press release:

Cíosa Le Gear is a contemplation into the human-music rapport. Cíosa is a real-life young songwriter from Galway. Using biographical information from a series of interviews, a group of actors and musicians have come to form relationships with Cíosa and her songs, whilst reflecting on their own relationships to music in the process. After weeks of exploration we found not only Cíosa, but ourselves.

Cíosa Le Gear is our way of telling you our secret. 

Wrong Curtain was established by John J. Smyth and Chris McCormack in 2010 to practice theatre that is in aberration from the traditional. Our aim is to render theatrical space in its intimate and harmonious quarters as opposed to its fictitious faculties. Through the rearranging of theatrical form, we seek to explore realities that are universal and true.

Will be getting around to writing my thoughts on the Imagine Ireland scheme and the Irish Times Theatre nominations later in the week.

Forced Entertainment, ‘Void Story’: A Night Out At The Theatre/Cinema/Radio/Etchells

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Jan 13-14

My review of Void Story coming up just as soon as I look for some leaves with medicinal properties …

Smashing Times crack the hourglass with ‘Shattering Glass’

I forgot to mention in my January listings Smashing Times and their ‘Acting For Change’ initiative in Donegal. The project utilises drama and theatre activities within Donegal to engage participants to explore themes that are a consequence of the conflict in Northern Ireland and the Southern Border counties.

As part of the initiative the company present Shattering Glass – an original production developed from an extensive period of research, workshops and interviews. The play explores memories, conflicts, and trauma through the portrayal of intense and dramatic experiences. The play opens at Balor Arts Centre, Ballybofey on the 11^th, and then moves to Ramelton Town Hall on the 12^th, Colgan Community and Resource Centre in Carndonagh the 13^th, and the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny on the 14^th.  

I really admire Smashing Times’ ethos of communal collaboration and social engagement. Turning their gaze to the traumatic history of Northern Ireland makes brilliant sense, and I’m really glad that someone is focusing theatre towards the cultural resonances of the nation’s darkest times.  

Musings Listings: January 2011

Happy 2011! One of my resolutions this year is to make this blog brilliant. One of the areas I feel that need improvement is promotion. Indeed, most of the shows I write about have finished their run by the time I get my pieces about them up. Thus, welcome to a new feature of Musings: a monthly listing of the shows that are on during the given month.

I’m happy to see that January 2011 is notable for other than the panto procession which usually dominates this time of year (though if you do fancy seeing Jafar, Abu, Iago, and company then the Gaiety is the place to go). Personally, my pick of the month is Forced Entertainment’s Void Story (pictured above) (Project Arts Centre, 13-14). Not often do these theatrical daredevils touch down on Irish soil, and those who know them know that they have an uncanny ability to warp theatrical form to marvellously demented results. The play tells the story of two survivors of a decimated civilization in a sort of ‘visual-radio play’ style.

 Also worth going to (even if have already) is The Company’s As You Are No So Once Were We(*), which has its well-earned run on Peacock stage, 25^th-Feb 5^th . Brilliant show.

 * Original review:

http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.com/2010/12/best-of-irish-theatre-2010-5-company-as.html#more

Also over in Dublin …