Fringe Talk: Sinéad O'Loughlin

Next in a series of interviews: Sinéad O’Loughlin talks about setting up Rampant with her best friend Katie Holmes (not Mrs. Cruise), the assault on feminism that led to their ABSOLUT Fringe debut Amy, I want to make you hard, and stealing Brokentalkers' production crew. 

Fringe Talk: Nyree Yergainharsian

The countdown to ABSOLUT Fringe 2011 is on, and in anticipation of its arrival you can find a new interview with a featured artist posted here each day.

Today it is Nyree Yergainharsian, member of 21^st century theatre pioneers The Company and one of the country’s most charming performers, now running solo in search of her place in the world in Where Do I Start? (I reviewed an earlier incarnation of it –beware of spoilers! – here). I caught Nyree on the lunch hour of her nine-to-nine day where she was eating the most impressive sandwich I had ever seen.  

Yaysterday, Tomorrow, Today

In my write-up on Theatre Forum’s conference in June I mentioned briefly that I talked with social media guru Darragh Doyle, who being the hilarious gent that he is was kind enough to answer what blog-related queries I had. In the last few weeks I have been talking to Darragh again, and he has since asked me to write about theatre for his arts and culture site www.yay.ie.

Established by Doyle, Stephanie Francis and Niamh Smith six months ago, Yay.ie has become a comprehensive guide to contemporary Irish theatre, music, film, and visual arts events, as well as a variety of other things (if you haven’t already, check out Doyle’s interview with Neil Watkins here). Being part of that coverage is incredibly exciting for me.

This won’t change anything on Musings in Intermissions, which continues to grow and engage beyond what I expected. In fact, what I write for both sites will be practically identical, if not entirely in many cases (just in case you think a mimic is out there impersonating me). Though I will reserve most of my venting rights for Musings.

I set up this blog to stimulate discussion on Irish theatre, and now I have not one but two platforms for me to do so. Go check out www.yay.ie ! I’ll see you over there (once I figure out all their technical doohickies).

Musings Listings: September 2011

Strap in folks. We’re about to head into the busiest time of the Irish theatre calendar. And there is a LOT on offer.

September is Fringe month as ABSOLUT Fringe 2011 takes over Dublin city with 82 different shows. Won’t be going too much into that here (consult my guide), but suffice it to say that the three shows I’m most excited about are The Corn Exchange’s Man of Valour, THISISPOPBABY’s The Year of Magical Wanking (its beau poet pictured above), and José Miguel Jiménez’s Jumping Off The Earth (now confirmed with action man Brian Bennett attached). Shows I neglected in that post which deserve more mention than I gave them include Tim Watt’s The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, now regarded a gem at last month’s Edinburgh Fringe; Junk Ensemble’s Bird With Boy in Kilmanham Jail (you’ll understand why when I post my interview with them); and Maurice Joseph Kelliher’s dance/theatre culprit Criminal Queers and Veronica Dyas’ site-specific In My Bed for their suspected daring and noble use of subject matter. For all information on ABSOLUT Fringe 2011 go to: http://www.fringefest.com/ .

Pan Pan, ‘All That Fall’: Picture Yourself On A Train In A Station

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Aug 23-Sept 2

My review of Pan Pan’s All That Fall by Samuel Beckett coming up just as soon as you shed light on my lifelong preoccupation with horses’ buttocks ...

Town Hall Theatre Galway, ‘Faith Healer’: Testimonies

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Aug 25-Sept 3


My review of the Town Hall’s production of Faith Healer by Brian Friel coming up just as soon as I measure my progress by the number of hours I sleep and the amount I drink and the number of cigarettes I smoke ...

A Guide to Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 2011

Finally diving into the programme for this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival. Last year, as evidenced by the reviews I wrote, I took a particular interest in the postdramatic segment of the schedule, seeing Ontroerend Goed, Tim Crouch, Pan Pan.  It probably was a gamble on festival director Loughlin Deegan’s part to give weight to such unconventional theatre. Not only were many of these productions deemed popular and critical successes, but the gesture of programming them shows that Deegan would sooner overestimate the ‘performance’ of the Irish audience before underestimating, as members of the public were made sit and chat with neighbours and whisked away into booths with strangers.

What is of most interest to me in this year’s festival, and what you’ll see written about around here, is the strong Irish involvement. In his fifth and final instalment, Deegan is focusing on our home-grown artists. Many past participants of Theatre Forum’s ‘The Next Stage’ development programme, which runs in tangent to the festival, are now featured artists. If this year’s festival is to be remembered for anything it will probably be for opening the golden gates to the next wave of Irish theatre makers.

But for now let’s focus on the present and dive right in. Find below my thoughts on this year’s programme and observe as I – like in my guide to the Fringe – try to narrow these choices down to my six must-gos.

Mephisto, ‘The Honey Spike’: Signs

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Jul 9-13

I already wrote about Mephisto’s road to The Honey Spike. My review coming up just as soon as I show you the alphabet ...

Caroline Lynch talks ‘The Honey Spike’ and five years of Mephisto

Zita Monahan, Emma O’Grady and Emmet Bryne in Mephisto’s The Honey Spike

It isn’t surprising that there’s a lot of buzz about the revival of Bryan MacMahon’s The Honey Spike at the Town Hall Theatre Galway this week (Aug 9-13). The play in itself is very popular, its story of a tinker and his pregnant wife’s journey across the country to give birth in ‘the lucky hospital’ has lived unpublished throughout the years, kept alive as a favourite with amateur drama groups across the country. But what is also exciting is the story offstage. After five years of consistent producing, touring and reinventing, taking cues from an eclectic range of voices from David Mamet to Oscar Wilde to Tom Murphy as well as confiding in their own artistic impulses and originality, local theatre-makers Mephisto have come to the main stage of Galway’s Town Hall. 

Some may consider this rather significant – that a company of such size and age may take to that stage for five nights (some of you may remember Zelig’s Appointment In Limbo in 2008 or Truman Theatre’s Sunday Morning Coming Down earlier this year also getting this space. However Limbo only ran for three nights and Sunday Morning one). It is also worth considering that, based on my last crunch of the numbers, the Town Hall’s main auditorium is the sixth biggest theatre performance space in the country, trumping both The Gate and The Lyric. This is quite the sign of faith by the venue that Mephisto can provide the goods, and there is considerable evidence that they could do just that. 

Because Mephisto has had an extraordinary year, beginning with the success of company member Tara McKevitt, whose radio play Grenades won the P.J. O’Connor award and a Gold Award at the New York Festivals Radio Drama Awards. Colleagues Emma O’Grady and Caroline Lynch then turned Grenades into a very poignant stage drama, toured around the country, selling out runs at the Cuirt literary festival in the Town Hall’s studio space and in Glasgow’s Tron at Mayfesto.

      

Last week I interviewed Caroline Lynch, who’s directing The Honey Spike, about their latest production, political correctness, the last five years on the go, and what the future may hold.

Musings Listings: August 2011

August is seeming quite novel in terms of Irish theatre, as there is a strong bill of bold and adventurous acts on the table.

First: Pan Pan are back! With the Irish Times Theatre Awards Best Production 2010 trophy under their belt and never-ending acclaim for The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (check out tour dates for October and November), the mavericks have returned for a date with Beckett (a first date, mind you. Considering their postmodern aesthetic I was surprised that Pan Pan had not engaged Beckett before). All That Fall is a radio play about a seventy year old woman and her laborious journey to the Boghill train station to meet her blind husband as a surprise for him on his birthday. The composition has been described as part black comedy, part murder mystery, part cryptic literary riddle, and part quasi-musical score. Furthermore, audiences will experience the play in a “listening chamber” in the upstairs space in the Project Arts Centre (Aug 23-Sept 2) architected by Aedín Cosgrove – who’s previous sets have been masterpieces in themselves. Gavin Quinn is on directing duties and Danes Andrew Bennett and Judith Roddy are among the cast.

Secondly: Una McKevitt is back with a new show. Those familiar with McKevitt’s work know its remarkable authenticity and issued quarrels between life and illusion, onstage and off, as very real people present themselves onstage with very real testimonies. Work such as Victor & Gord and 565+ have rewritten theatrical code in such a manner that the distance between spectator and performer has been joyously reduced. With The Big Deal (pictured above), McKevitt’s practice seems to have taken a whole new step. Described as an “extraordinary real life story of two women who knew from a very young age that they were born into the wrong bodies”, The Big Deal is based on these two friends and their individual journeys towards full transition from male to female bodies. Like McKevitt’s previous work, the subjects have composed the script themselves, supplying material such as journals, poems, songs, and interviews. Unlike her previous work, the individuals themselves will not be delivering the content. Instead, McKevitt has cast two actors to perform in the show. It will be interesting to see if the authentic nature which made her work so moving in the past will be present in the absence of those whose lives are ‘The Big Deal’ on this particular occasion. Catch the play at the Barnstorm theatre (Aug 10-14) as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival.

15th Oak Productions, ‘Minute After Midday’: Staging ‘The Troubles’

The New Theatre, 10 Days in Dublin

Jul 15-16

My review of Minute After Midday coming up just as soon as I decide to stay at home and watch the Tyrone game ...

A Guide to ABSOLUT Fringe 2011, ‘Brave New World’

Last week the line-up for this year’s ABSOLUT Fringe was revealed, which will take place in Dublin September 10-25. Sailing under the banner ‘Brave New World’ – this year’s festival intends to chart “a new course through a very changed Irish society”. Below are a few thoughts on the programme and a provisional strategy of what shows I’m going to attend.

Fishamble, ‘Silent’: Valentino

Druid Lane Theatre, Galway Arts Festival

Jul 11-16

A few thoughts on Pat Kinevane’s Silent coming up just as soon as I paint my nails immaculate blue ...

Landmark Productions, ‘Misterman’: To The Dogs Or Whoever

Black Box Theatre, Galway Arts Festival

July 11-24

My review (with spoilers) of Enda Walsh and Cillian Murphy’s excellent Misterman coming up just as soon as I feel the door shut gently behind me as I step out into Innisfree ...

Paines Plough, ‘Love, Love, Love’: Happily Ever After?

Town Hall Theatre, Galway Arts Festival

Jul 12-16

My review of Love, Love, Love coming up just as soon as my generation learns how to improvise wildly ...

Musings Listings: July 2011

There is something of a retrospective vibe to July. Brian Friel is seemingly the writer-in-residence at both the Abbey and the Gate this month. Molly Sweeney – “a humorous, compelling and moving drama, which tells the story of a woman, blind since infancy, who has the chance to regain her sight” – will run at the Gate while post-colonial masterpiece Translations – featuring a cast including Janet Moran (Freefall, Pineapple), Aaron Monaghan (Christ Deliver Us!, The Silver Tassie) and Denis Conway (The Gigli Concert, Penelope) – runs in the Abbey until mid August.

Also revisiting from the past is Enda Walsh’s Misterman (pictured above) – a highlight of this year’s Galway Arts Festival and also my pick of the month. This dark tale of a man on a self-appointed mission to “do the Lord’s work” in the small community of Inishfree was originally staged by Corcadorcha in 1999 starring Walsh himself. Now reworked and expanded, with Walsh on directing duties and Disco Pig Cillian Murphy cast in the role, it’s hard not to get excited about Misterman (Town Hall Theatre, Jul 7-24). This year’s festival does present a Disco Pigs reunion of sorts, as Eileen Walsh can be seen as the lone star of Corcadorcha’s arcane site-specific Request Programme (the Western Hotel, Jul 11-23). Combined, these three individuals once arrested expectations with a surrealist theatre that had little history and little inhibition. It will be interesting to catch up with them since their days tearing up ‘Pork City’.

Barabbas, ‘City of Clowns’: Back to Basics

Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise

Jun 15

Raymond Keane’s City of Clowns has been in production for some time now, and marks Barabbas’ return to the theatre scene since their core funding was cut last year. A considerable project grant has put the clowns back on their feet, allowing them to bring City of Clowns to the Clomnel Junction and Earagail Arts Festivals this month. The show opens in Clomnel this Sunday but Keane, as artist-in-residence at Dunamaise, premiered the show there two weeks ago.

Personally, the show is a winner. Keane has a presence that can replace the audience’s laughter with sympathetic silence instantly, and the Barabbas portrayal of ‘clowns’ as individuals not invincible to human loss and longing continues to be a very interesting psychology. The triumph of City of Clowns lies in a left turn in the performance that I won’t even dare to mention here, though I will discuss it in the comments section with people if they desire. Barabbas have gone back to the raw element of ‘theatre’ as a social art with this one, and it’s a very appropriate move considering the company’s recent battles for security and resource.

Check it out and discuss below. 

Fregoli, 'The Secret Life Of Me': My Fair Ladies

Town Hall Theatre, Galway

Jun 28-Jul 2

My review of Fregoli’s The Secret Life of Me coming up just as soon as I remember every single thing Richard has ever said ...

NUIG Dramsoc, ‘The Hero Returns’: Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Bank of Ireland Theatre, Galway

Jun 27-Jul 1

My review of The Hero Returns coming up just as soon as I sell my shape ...

Fintan O’Toole, ‘Power Plays’: Sermons

I’ve been pacing back and forth the past week on to whether to publish my opinion on Power Plays or not. What I have to say seems more appropriate for a ‘letter to the editor’ as opposed to a post here. Then I read Luke Murphy’s sad but inspiring account on why he’s resigning from ‘theatre blogging’ in London. In his exiting remarks, he encourages writers to not focus solely on reviews but to also ignite conversation on the future of theatre, its innovation and problems, so that the industry can evolve.

So here we go ...

Theatre Forum, 'On With The Show': With Great Power Comes Great "Responsibility" (and No Funding)

“On With the Show” – a title aptly given by Theatre Forum Ireland to their conference this year. Over the course of two days, sessions took place in NUI Galway which discussed issues such as the development of ‘new media’ in theatre promotion and discourse, the current state of the theatre artist in his/her career sustainability and artistic responsibility, and the always pressing issue of funding.  

Loose Canon, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream?’: Making An Ass of You and Me

Project Arts Centre, Dublin

May 31-Jun 18

               

My review of Loose Canon’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? coming up just as soon as I have had a most rare vision ...

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