Evolution Of A Dream – Photo Sequence

I’m pretty much addicted to sequences lately, trying to put together still images more like a scene than just a photo, if that makes sense!?

The other night I had one of those awesome flying dreams and it gave me the idea for the above sequence. Now, anybody who knows me, knows for sure that I can’t fly… so the sequence was more a nightmare for my legs than it was from the technical side (which was also a bit of a nightmare!).

Shot in the HotShotz Photography Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) using my 50mm on auto-focus, four-point wireless lighting, with my D80 set on delayed-timer triggered using remote.

The main problem was being in the air at the right time, whilst staying in the frame and then trying to make the movement of the jump progress. I didn’t have a tripod so I had to rest my camera on a large stool and prop it up with a blanket.

I had to try frame my shot on an empty white backdrop, move into where I thought I should be, trigger the delayed-timer then count not three seconds… not four seconds… but three and a half seconds before jumping into the air just as the lights and camera triggered.

I repeated the process while adjusting my movements in the air to get the progression. Afterwards I added the film strip, did a bit of playing around with colour and varied the opacity through the jumps to make it look like a sequence you’d see in a skate magazine.

The result is an image sequence I’m really happy with, some very sore leg muscles that I never knew I had and the firm belief that jumping is over-rated (Martin Bridgeman agrees)!

You can check out a larger version of the image here along with a link to an alternate sequence. As always comments or feedback are appreciated.

Vultures Episode 5: Shut down, hand-shandy’s and the final scene (Photos)

I’ve just uploaded my final batch of photos from behind the scenes of Vultures episode 5: ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm‘.

Following on from the scene in the underground car park, where Leeson shuts down V.P.I, the detectives return to Tennyson’s house and call their “juvenile sex-pest” lawyer Matt McLoughlin. The scene in the kitchen was shot on Shoot Day 25, with our old house once again used as Tennyson’s house.

This scene was the first in a series of night-shoots but was relatively easy; we had quickly realised that there was no way to make that kitchen look nice, so equipped with two €30 construction lights with 5oo Watt bulbs and two household lamps with 100 Watt bulbs we simply tried to “make it look less shite!”.

The balcony out the back provided a nice opening shot for the scene and once we moved inside, the lighting set-ups remained the same for all the scenes shot in Tennyson’s kitchen. We spent the shoot constantly distracted by fresh pots of tea and chocolate biscuits, barely getting the scene shot before Thompson had to go to work.

The scene cuts back and forth to Matt McLoughlin (Peter McGann) surrounded by “some slutty looking hens” in a crowded bar. We shot the bar scene on Shoot Day 19 on the stage in the back of Cleere’s Theatre, just one of several scenes shot over that hectic snowy weekend, I think we had five location moves that day in particular. The scene was a simple one set-up, two shots; Matt talking on the phone and then looking for “a hand-shandy” from Cynthia (Mairead Kiernan) on the couch, with Rosaleen Johnson & Eadoin Carthy as extras.

We used two four-colour stage lights borrowed from KilkennyMusic to light the scene and despite the nightmare trying to focus under the extreme colour lights, I managed to put together the above character portrait sequence of Matt & Cynthia.

In the final scene of episode 5, McGrain pays a visit to Isabelle Vultour (Liadain Kaminska), the scene was shot way back on Shoot Day 2 with John Morton’s house once again used as Isabelle & Tom Moriarty’s love-nest. Our second day of shooting, our first interior night shoot, we spent quite a bit of time trying to light the scene; there was limited shoot space and several set-ups as Isabelle moves around the kitchen. We wanted it to be warm & cosy but at the same time we didn’t want to have to keep changing lighting set-ups as we moved around.

The 500 Watt construction lights were too strong and the lights in John’s kitchen weren’t strong enough. In the end, we set up one construction light outside the sliding glass door and used the blinds to defuse it, the second construction light was placed high up on top of a kitchen press and bounced off the ceiling. We used the two household lamps and some candles on the table as portable lights, slighting tweaking the set-ups as the characters moved around.

We had rehearsed the scene earlier that evening in the Abbey Business Center and with the exception of a small difference in space everything ran smoothly. As with all indoor shoots we drank way too much tea that night, a fresh brew being made between each set-up, constantly listening to ‘Moonlight Serenade’ and discussing things like bathroom reading and the “word to poo ratio”. As far as I can remember, I shot the photos of Tom & Isabelle (that appear in the scene) that night and then the shot of the photos on the shelf was picked up later.

We didn’t have enough space to shoot the wide shot from inside the kitchen, so we had to move outside and shoot through the open door. John spent most of this set-up having to chase his three-legged cat Pancho away, as she kept trying to steal the scene during takes. It was during the outside set-up/cat chase that we came up with the final shot, mirroring the final shot in episode 1 as the camera slowly moves back in a series of fades, as the music swells and McGrain watches Isabelle dance around the kitchen, the final shots are some of my favourite in episode 5.

You can check out all my shots from behind the scenes on Vultures here and as always any comments or feedback are appreciated. This final batch of episode 5 photos includes a rare shot of me during the shoot, I’m not sure who took it, I think it was David Thompson!?

Photos from episode 6 on the way soon.

Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

For full details and to purchase tickets for ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ check out DeviousTheatre.com.

Vultures Episode 5: The Car Park Scene, Character Portraits & “watching a man take a poo!” (Photos)

My first upload of the new year is another batch of behind the scenes photos from Vultures Episode 5: ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm‘; a mixture of shots from the bathroom & car park scenes, a couple of random shots and some character portraits.

First up, there’s some individual portraits of John Morton and Alan Slattery taken in the Mycrofilm’s production office. Given that the premiere for Episode 4: ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates‘ took place two weeks into the shoot for episodes 5,6 & 7; it meant we spent most of our nights in the office (if we weren’t shooting). Those nights were a crazy mixture of editing episode 4 and pre-production for upcoming shoot days whilst drinking endless amounts of tea.

The schedule hung across the entire back wall of the office, constantly changing and being re-worked, it had quickly become a foreign language to me and indeed everyone except John. That evening in particular, I had received my wireless-flash-triggers in the post, so I took a break from story-boarding to test them out; I can’t remember the settings at this stage but I was playing with opposing colour pre-sets to get a cool blue effect on John as he stands “master of the schedule” and Sla sitting at his desk editing.

Following the scene in Noah’s car in episode 5, the fugitive V.P.I detectives and Quint Quigley retreat to Niall Tennyson’s house; where they put on some rubber gloves and attempt to retrieve the stolen data from inside the stoner. The scene was shot on Shoot Day 20 and although I didn’t take any photos of that scene I remember it was a lot of fun to shoot. We had spent a couple of days shooting various scenes in Tennyson’s kitchen (our old house was used for most of the interiors in Tennyson’s house) so lighting plans had been worked out in advance and with a basic shot-list for the montage we spent the afternoon doing various nasty things to Quigley (Kevin Mooney); making him drink cod liver oil, shaking him upside-down and saying things like “does it look like three men forcefully jamming their fingers down another mans throat!?”.

The scene eventually moves to Tennyson’s bathroom so Quigley can try force the microfilm or usb stick or possible laptop out his other end. The bathroom scene had actually been shot a few days before the rubber-gloved montage, on Shoot Day 16 in John Morton’s house. It was the only bathroom we could find with enough space to shoot four people in and even then we had a very limited shoot space. We didn’t have room for the lights so we set up a light outside the window (which is actually an interior window) and it created a lovely warm yellow glow to the scene.

Cut to a phone call from Jane Tennyson (Annette O’Shea) sitting in a car with Inspector Leeson (Paul Young), this single set-up was picked up quickly on Shoot Day 34, during a hectic weekend of shooting the scene in the Pinkerton’s lair amongst many others. We took a break from shooting interiors and moved to the car park outside to grab the shot.

Following the phone call, the detectives and Quigley race to buy some weed off Jack Street, a scene that was shot on Shoot Day 31. I have yet to master the art of taking behind the scenes photos of scenes I’m actually in, especially scenes where I get maced (again!), so once again unfortunately I don’t have any shots. On this day in particular, we had nobody to swing the boom so Sla was both the camera & sound crew. But during a quick tea-break in Jack Street’s lane-way, I managed to shoot some character portraits of Quint Quigley.

The fugitives then move to an underground car-park, so Quigley can once again attempt to poo out the microfilm. This scene was also shot on Shoot Day 34 in the car park of MacDonagh Junction shopping center. As I’ve said, we were in the middle of shooting the Pinkerton’s lair scene from episode 7 that weekend, the long scene took two night shoots and two full day & night shoots but on the Sunday morning we had limited access to the car park while it was closed.

The car park was easily one of my favourite shoot locations, I just wish we had more time there so I could have taken more photos. We had a three-hour window to shoot the scene which involved seven characters, tracking shots, interior & exterior car shots, a judo flip and a good bit of dialogue. Despite the time constraints we still managed nearly 20 set-ups; using a wheelchair for the tracking shots and then getting plenty of hand-held coverage of each of the actors outside the car.

The end of the scene had been re-written just days before, with some extended dialogue in the back of the car being added as we get our first glimpse of Nathalie Blaise (well, her pink glove). After shooting the car scene with Noah, this was a lot easier to shoot; once again putting the Canon XA-H1 on my Slik Pro 4000x photography tripod to shoot the V.P.I detectives in the backseat, a side-angle on Leeson from the passenger seat as the car pulls up and then shooting hand-held close-ups from the backseat for Jane Tennyson & Inspector Leeson’s dialogue in the car.We’d quickly set up the shot, adding or losing cast members depending on the needs of the shot and the space needed for the set-up, then driving in laps around the empty car park, repeat lines until we were sure it was covered and our time eventually ran out.

You can check out all my shots from behind the scenes of Vultures here, as always comments and feedback would be appreciated and there’s plenty more photos on the way soon.

Vultures Episode 5: Shooting the Car Scene (Photos)

Following on from the lane-way chase sequence in Vultures episode 5; we moved location to the Hebron Industrial estate to shoot the end of the scene; where Noah Hennessy shows up to save the V.P.I Detectives and fugitive Quint Quigley.

We had scouted the location a few days before and found a nice wide road with a dead end, meaning not much traffic and plenty of room for us to shoot what we needed. We were planning on using car mounts for the scene but the process of actually renting them had been too much of a nightmare so we scrapped the idea a few days before the shoot, opting to shoot everything from inside the car.

We were still very much against the clock, we hadn’t shot anything like this before so this shoot was going to be very tricky and the weather was due to turn against us, but for the moment we had strong sunshine so we moved quickly. I had been watching a constant flow of films like Hot Fuzz and knew we needed a lot of coverage to keep the cuts quick and keep the pace in the scene, even if we were driving very slowly. We shot in sequence, finishing the chase as the detectives run into a dead end and the Pinkerton goons close in on them. Then Noah comes to the rescue in his little taxi, but because Gus couldn’t actually drive; Sla would set up the shot then drive the car wearing Noah’s jacket.

Then we shot all of Noah’s dialogue in various set-ups inside the car; with Sla sitting back to front in the passenger seat using the bright sunshine to burn out the background for a side-angle on Noah as we pushed the car along, shots from the back seat when Noah looks around or uses the mirror and some quick whips from outside as he pulls up. Then came the tricky parts, the reverse coverage of the detectives and Quigley in the back seat.

Our main shoot tripod was too big to set up inside the car so instead we put the Canon XA-H1 on my Slik Pro 4000x photography tripod and framed the shot on V.P.I & Quigley in the backseat. Sla once again became the driver (wearing Noah’s jacket) and I sat in the passenger seat between the legs of the tripod, with the boom resting between the two front seats. We drove laps around a stretch of quiet roads in the industrial estate, with me shouting Noah’s dialogue and the lads giving their lines.

We had borrowed a field monitor for the shoot but 10 minutes into shooting it had died. As we drove in circles, we had problems with the bright sunshine moving across faces in the car, burning them out, and the tripod would lean on the turns. In the end, we shot one continous take of this scene, driving in circles for about half an hour, holding lines on corners we knew were too sunny and only stopping to reframe for close-ups and then repeat the process until there was no way we couldn’t possibly have enough coverage.

It was one of the most intense days of shooting; a morning of running mayhem followed by a cramped car shoot but it was so much fun. We shot until the schedule would allow and then took a quick lunch break before moving location to Jenkinstown woods to shoot Noah’s montage sequence from episode 6.

I’ve just uploaded some behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot; it was a hectic day so I didn’t have much time for photos but there’s some shots of our guerrilla style car-shoot set-ups and a glimpse at how much abuse actors can take in one day.

You can check out my behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot here on my Flickr. More photos on the way soon.

Vegetarian Kilkenny: Christmas “No Meat & Greet”

Vultures Episode 5: Character Portraits, Stalking & Chase Sequences

I’m attempting to sort through a huge backlog of photos I’ve let build up from the past year, in particular all my behind the scenes shots from the 10 week shoot for Vultures episodes 5, 6 & 7.

As I’ve said before, I’d like to put the photos up in the order that the scenes appear in the episodes, not in the order they were shot. The result of that choice is quite confusing; the shooting schedule was pretty complicated and scattered, I’ve got over 2000 photos from the shoot that need to be put in the right order before I can work on them. After previous episodes I was aware how frustrating it was to have to hold back on uploading shots to avoid spoilers. It meant that I had looked at the shots so many times before they went up that I just wasn’t happy with them anymore.

Thankfully, over the past few months I’ve learned a few new tricks and tips, I’m beginning to concentrate on the overall presentation of my work and I have a lot of new ideas with plenty of photos stocked up to test them out on. Recently I’ve been looking at a lot of commercial photography and in particular image sequences, it’s something I wanted to try. I was never quite happy with the final presentation of most of my Vultures character portraits, so as a test I revisited three individual shots of the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I: Niall Tennyson (Séan Hackett), Jim Vultour (John Morton) and Dan McGrain (David Thompson), each standing outside the red door exterior location used for the V.P.I offices.

I wasn’t happy with the overall finish of the shots but at the time didn’t know what to do with them. Now, I’ve done a bit more work on them and feel they go better together in a sequence which you can see here.

I’ve also uploaded a couple of behind the scenes shots from the scene in episode 5 where Dan McGrain stalks Tom Moriarty. For such a small scene it was surprisingly complicated to shoot; with bits of the scene being shot on different shoot days. The stuff where McGrain gets a lift from Noah (Gus McDonagh), who suggests running him over, was shot on Shoot Day 22.

We only had four days to shoot any scene featuring Noah and it was the most intense four days of shooting overall; attempting to shoot scenes that were bigger and more complicated than anything we’d shot before. We had been shooting all day and then before we completely lost the light we picked up this part of the sequence. Gus can’t drive so we simply found a quiet street in an estate, with a gradual slope and then we slowly pushed the car along. Sla was positioned sitting back-to-front in the passenger seat to get the shot and I watched on the monitor through the window as we pushed the car along. I didn’t get any photos.

But I did get a nice shot of McGrain watching Tom through his binoculars at the Black Abbey. It was Shoot Day 37 and it was horrible. I can’t remember what else was shot earlier that day but we went to pick up the shot outside Frank Walls and it began to rain, ice cold rain. Snow was soon to follow. We moved quickly to the Black Abbey, the rain stopped but then Sla got called away. We attempted to shoot without him (NOTE: never attempt to shoot without Sla), but we ran out of tapes. There was more in the office but Sla had the keys. It was a painful day!

The rest of the stalking sequence was shot on Shoot Day 39, the last day of shooting. I’ve uploaded two new shots from behind the display of the Canon XA H1 featuring McGrain watching Tom leave his house and one shot of Tom leaving his house with Isabelle watching him strut away. Shooting the rest of the sequence where Tom walks through town and all the ladies swoon was hilarious but I didn’t get any photos, I was either laughing too much or in awe of sexy Tom Moriarty!?

Episode-wise, the stalking sequence leads us back to the office, Quint Quigley makes his entrance and then all hell breaks loose with a chase sequence through the various lanes of Kilkenny. We shot the office interior stuff with Quint on a different weekend entirely, where we also shot the dialogue for the start of the chase sequence. We shot the chase sequence itself over the intense weekend that Gus was available, on that day in particular the Post Office on High Street had been robbed and so the high presence of squad cars and helicopters added to the mood.

Sla managed to nab a couple of handy pick-up shots throughout the day and we got quite a lot of funny looks. We started an hour later than planned, somebody got delayed, it was already going to be a tough day and now we had to pick up speed. In the hour wait, I managed to pick up a character portrait of Alan Dawson as the randomer-punching eye-patch-wearing samurai-sword-swinging Pinkerton goon which you can check out here on the Oss237.com homepage.

Shooting was quick and frantic, we were against the clock,  shooting the sequence in order, quick handheld set-ups that I had mapped out in advance, moving through the various lanes, dashing across roads, dodging traffic and occasionally having to hold for human traffic wandering through shots or simply for actors trying to catch their breath. I kept putting my script and flask down for set-ups only to forget them. Thankfully Pip was with us and was good enough to constantly pick them up for me!

The chase sequence was also the first introduction of new Pinkerton goon BrickMan played by Matty Gargan. I didn’t get to take many shots that day but I had already snapped his character portrait during Shoot Day 8 where we shot some of Ned Savage’s montage sequence for episode 6. Again I wasn’t entirely happy with the finish of the overall shot so I’ve gone back and worked on it to produce a two-shot sequence that properly introduces BrickMan, you can check it out here.

Following the chase through the lanes we moved location to an industrial estate to shoot the end of the sequence where Noah shows up to rescue the detectives and Quigley, which was then followed by a location move to Jenkinstown woods to shoot Noah’s montage sequence from episode 6, but I’ll talk more about those scenes when I get the photos sorted.

The result of the quick-paced shoot for the chase scene meant I didn’t get a lot of time to take photos but I had a couple of rough shots. Alone I wasn’t happy with them, they were taking on a corner as the lads ran uphill and towards the camera. I hid behind a car out-of-shot to get the photos during a take, but as they came around the corner the sun was shining and I didn’t have the chance for a second take or adjusting settings. It also wasn’t ideal to be trying to shoot all this action on a 50mm lens, focus was a nightmare. So rather than not have some of the scene captured in photos I spent a bit of time working on the five shots I had (seen at the top of this post), playing with colouring and textures for a sequence that I’m very happy with, for a first attempt at this sort of thing.

I wanted to give it a film sequence look, making it look like old film footage that had been slightly damaged and exposed. To finish it off I added some lines directly from the script that best described the scene and explained what exactly was going on in the sequence.

So please have a look at The Chase Sequence and as always any comments, critcism or feedback would be greatly appreciated. More photos on the way soon.

The Beauty Queen Of Leenane – Behind the Scenes Photos

The past few weeks have been pretty overwhelming, it’s taken me quite a while to put it all in perspective and even now I’m not sure I can sum it all up.

In such a short amount of time, so many things in my life have changed. It seemed fitting that in the midst of moving house after six long years and with so many things changing around me, that I would be involved in a production that was completely different to anything I’ve ever done before, an experience I will never forget for so many reasons.

After Devious Theatre’s production of Trainspotting, Watergate manager Ger Cody asked me if I would read a script; Martin McDonagh’s iconic ‘The Beauty Queen Of Leenane’. I had heard a little about the play but was really unfamiliar with it. I read it and loved it, I knew it was something I had to be involved in; the great script, it would be a great part to play and it was a rare chance to work with Kilkenny’s oldest theatrical institution, Watergate Productions.

Unfortunately, due to issues with getting the rights for the play, the production went on hold. Months passed by and sadly I began to think it was never going to happen. Until I got a call from Ger, the rights had been secured and the play would run in November. That’s when I first felt a bit nervous. The first script reading took place on the Watergate stage a few weeks later, with the cast assembled for the first time, sitting in a circle on the stage reading together. Myself and Clare Henriques were welcomed into the group for our debut production and from the initial reading the play began to take shape.

Weeks of rehearsals passed by, moving between the Watergate stage (when it was available) and a large room in the Heritage Council building. Slowly but surely, the scenes and movements were blocked out, lines were learned and characters began to appear. Anticipation seemed to be growing for the production, people were approaching me in the street, constantly asking about the play.

Rehearsals grew from working on single scenes to running several scenes together. Having full cast rehearsals was an amazing experience, getting to work with actors I’ve admired for years was more than a little intimidating. Going from being the eldest in a troupe to being the youngest was a strange transition to make, but the constant warmth and encouragement from Ger, Brendan, Mary and Clare throughout the rehearsals made me feel truly welcome.

The week before the show came, we made the move to night-time rehearsals on the Watergate stage, as the set began to appear around us. Each night the progress was clearly visible as props, costumes and lights were added to the mix. Scenes were run countless times, constantly tweaking and changing things. The Friday before the show opened I moved house, it was an exhausting experience in itself, and not something I’d recommend the weekend before a play opens. That night we had the tech rehearsal and on the Sunday morning we had our full dress and tech rehearsal complete with rain and fire on the stage. All we needed now was an audience.

Monday came and I was overwhelmed by “good luck” phone calls, emails, text messages and comments. I was more than a little nervous as I walked the new route to the Watergate, arriving to discover good luck cards and that the opening night was sold out!? I don’t think I can describe accurately how I felt; the Monday to Saturday run was the longest production I’ve ever done and to open to a full house on a Monday night was a truly awesome and terrifying experience at the same time. At the end, as we walked out for the curtain call that first night, the audience rose to their feet. It was an amazing feeling and every night that followed we were treated to the same reaction from the audience.

The response and feedback to the play has been so overwhelming, two weeks on and people are still approaching me every day to talk about it. It’s been great to hear the different thoughts and feelings we provoked in people and their theories on what happened in the end.

It’s been a month of changes for me, in every aspect of my life and I’ve learned so much about myself. Getting to play such a great character in such a great play, working with an awesome cast and director on a truly awesome set. I really can’t accurately describe how I feel about the whole thing but I’m very proud and grateful to have been a part of it.

I have to say a huge thanks to director Ger Cody for giving me the opportunity, for his constant patience when I wouldn’t slow down and his encouragement throughout. Having known Ger for years I always thought he was legend. I now feel like I know him a lot better and I realise that he’s even more of a legend than I first thought. He told me so many hilarious stories and I’ve learned so much from his direction.

I also have to thank my fellow cast; for so many awesome memories, for making me feel so welcome and for so many moments shared with each of them. From the whole cast referring to my piercings as “facial crockery” to the whole cast on their hands and knees searching for pieces of that crockery, that would end up dropped each night. I’m also pretty certain that the audience were quite unaware each night as they took their seats, that backstage the cast were dancing to the jigs & reels being played in the auditorium, quite a funny sight to behold with everyone in full costume & makeup. The quote of the week had to be “Up your oul hole Missus”, a phrase the cast would shout at each other regularly and after the curtain call each night we shared a group-hug.

Trying to keep a straight face on stage opposite Mary Cradock as Mag was no easy thing and every night there were moments in the final scene where myself and Claire could never make eye contact for fear of exploding into laughter. Although I didn’t get to share a scene with Brendan, we did share a dressing room and each night we had so many wonderful conversations; the man has too many funny stories and theories to sum up. I feel privileged that he shared them with me and helped me to develop my character as well as showing me how to do my own makeup for the first time.

I have to thank the Watergate Staff and the crew for their amazing work and encouragement; thanks to Pat, Maurice, Donal, Andrew, Colette and Aidan for adding the magic touches. Finally, thanks to anybody who came to see the play, the response has been truly inspiring.

Over the course of the production I took hundreds of photographs; after spending the past few days sorting and organising them I have narrowed it down to a collection of 39 photographs that capture the production from my point of view.

Taken over a 7-week period, the collection of shots ranges in style; from black & white shots from the early days of rehearsals on the Watergate stage under the dim house-lights to colourful rehearsals in the Heritage building, right up to the week of the play with full set, costumes, make-up and lighting.

Although I didn’t manage to take a photo of myself in character as Ray Dooley, I spent some time working with wireless flash triggers to produce some promo shots based on Ray’s beloved swingball set and his favoured Kimberley biscuits.

You’ll find my favourite shots from the collection on the Oss237.com homepage and you’ll see the complete collection of 39 images here on my Flickr account.

As always any feedback, comments or criticism are welcome. I’d love to hear what people think. I hope to spend the next few weeks clearing a huge build-up of photographs from the past year and moving house has presented me with a host of new locations and light sources to experiment with so I have plenty of new shots on the way.

For now please check out my brand new behind the scenes shots from the Watergate Productions ‘The Beauty Queen Of Leenane‘.

The Beauty Queen Of Leenane: “Beauty is funny – tragic too” – KilkennyAlive Review

The local amateur production, directed by theatre boss, Ger Cody, had a marvellous cast of four, veterans Mary Cradock and Brendan Corcoran and relative drama newcomers Claire Henriques and Ross Costigan.

As usual Mary and Brendan were superb.

But particularly pleasing was the fantastic performance of play deb Claire Henriques who revelled in the very difficult role of a mother-domineered daughter.

Ross was the talented fourth member of an excellent team that fully deserved the end of play standing ovation from an appreciative audience.

The story was one that has been played out all over Ireland for generations.

It was the tale of a 40-year-old woman, Maureen (Claire Henriques) who was completely dominated by her roguish and quite elderly mother (Mary  Craddock) who craved undivided attention and was intent on keeping her offspring as a house slave.

But along came a would-be-suitor in the shape of Brendan Corcoran who brought romance into the life of the daughter of Connemara.

That situation certainly didn’t suit mother who got up to all sorts of nasty tricks in a bid to crush any possible life of love for her daughter.

The fab four thespians played their respective roles with real feeling and while entertaining with some really funny lines, they also brought home the tragedy of a mother-daughter tradition that has led to heartbreak and despair for thousands of women, and indeed many men, over the years.

The play was yet another triumph for local talent, proof, as if proof was needed, that the home-grown product is the soul of local theatre.

Well done to Ger Cody on a production to be truly proud of.

The play continues tonight, Friday, with the final curtain falling after the Saturday performance. Curtain up is at 8pm each evening and there is a 15-minute interval.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane: “A beautiful darkness” – Kilkenny People Review

The following review was published by Tess Felder in the Kilkenny People newspaper on Friday 27th of November 2009. The above photo was taken by Colm Gray.

“MUSIC is the space between the notes,” wrote the composer Claude Debussy, and he could easily have been referring to the Watergate Productions’ Beauty Queen Of Leenane which is on the local stage nightly until Saturday.

The play by Martin McDonagh, of In Bruges and The Cripple Of Inishmaan fame, centres on a 40-year-old woman and her cantankerous elderly mother who live together in a cottage in rural Ireland in the 1980s. As the woman, Maureen Folan (Claire Henriques) comes face to face with a chance-in-a-lifetime romance, her mother Mag (Mary Cradock) does all in her power to block the opportunity, afraid that her daughter’s success in love would leave the elderly woman either alone or put into a nursing home.

Maureen’s love interest, Pato Dooley (Brendan Corcoran), a somewhat shy but honest man home briefly from England, communicates his love via a letter to be delivered by his youngest brother, Ray (Ross Costigan), whose boredom and occasional laziness can get in the way of him doing the right thing.

As can be expected, the Watergate crew have pulled out all the stops for this production under the direction of Gerry Cody, with impressively realistic effects and a wonderful but simple set.

The four actors deliver their lines adeptly, and yet – crucially – much is left unsaid, the unspoken arguments and at times affection passing wordlessly between them. Mary Cradock is a perfectly crotchety old woman, shouting orders for tea and porridge at whoever happens to be in the room with her, while Claire Henriques manages to convey both the warm longing and the cold cruelty the character possesses, changing demeanour in an instant when turning her attention from Pato to her mother.

Brendan Corcoran meanwhile presents Pato as a genuine man, working hard to make a living for himself and do right by the people in his life. He is particularly good as a steady middle ground in a scene he shares with the two women, and in a solo scene as he conveys his feelings from England.

Ross Costigan’s Ray delivers plenty of comic relief as promised and is a wonderful foil for the harsh Mag. He especially comes into his own in his longer final scenes, where it is clear the character has good intentions but doesn’t quite know what to make of these two unpredictable women.

It has been said before, but it is worth repeating how fortunate Kilkenny is to have this calibre of theatre locally. This is a dark play and it requires a good deal of skill to convey this depth while also keeping the audience laughing throughout the performance, and staying true to the characters from start to finish.