Public Enemies

The entire cast of Devious Theatre’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ have been branded public enemies!

You can read interviews with Kilkenny’s Most-Wanted over on DeviousTheatre.com and we’re also hi-jacking the airwaves on the Edwina Grace show on KCLR96fm this afternoon around 4:15pm.

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.

Busker 2009

KilkennyMusic.com in association with the Kilkenny 400 celebrations are hosting the Kilkenny Busking Competition from April until September.

The aim of the competition is to find the best of Irish Buskers and as an official sponsor; Oss237.com will provide photography coverage and prizes to the competition.

The collaboration between the Kilkenny 400 organisers and KilkennyMusic.com will bring 72 buskers to six locations on the streets of Kilkenny. Each fortnight of the competition, we’ll record one song from each act and upload it to KKM, where visitors can vote in an online poll. If you can’t catch the music on the streets then you can just visit KilkennyMusic.com to cast your votes on videos of your favourite act.

One act each fortnight will win €200 as a cash prize, with the best of the acts in the competition invited back to Kilkenny at the end of September to compete for a top prize of €1,000. Those acts will be chosen by the public through the online vote.

To be in with a chance of winning, you must be registered to compete before the competition starts on April 18th. All genres and styles are welcome, there are certain restrictions in that acts must be able to perform unplugged, and of course they have to be able to make it to Kilkenny on their chosen date.

Anyone interested should visit www.kilkennymusic.com/busker2009 for information on dates, prizes, how to register and how to vote.

The Secret Of Kells – Kilkenny Premiere (Video)

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending the Kilkenny premiere of Cartoon Saloon’s ‘The Secret Of Kells‘. It’s in cinemas now and if you haven’t seen it then you’re really missing out! GO SEE IT!

The Kilkenny premiere was held as a fundraiser for the Young Irish Film Makers and the above video contains an introduction to ‘The Secret Of Kells’ by Ross Murray from the Cartoon Saloon, Mike Kelly (Artistic Director of YIFM) talks about the early days of Cartoon Saloon and Tomm Moore (Director), Ross Stewart (Art Director), Paul Young (Producer) & Fabian Erlinghauser (Animation Supervisor) talk briefly about how ‘The Secret Of Kells’ came to be.

I have to say that it was a great honour for our mixed gang of Devious Theatre & Vultures‘ crew to be invited to the premiere, and then to receive such awesome words of encouragement on the night.

Seeing something like this come out of Kilkenny is truly inspiring. ‘The Secret Of Kells’ is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and I found myself sitting wide-eyed with my jaw hanging open throughout.

‘The Secret Of Kells’ is in cinemas now, GO SEE IT!!!

Stuff & Things…

Design by Paddy Dunne

I’m on a quick break from shooting, giving me just enough time to post some news and updates;

Firstly, check out the winter edition of START Magazine, aside from a feature on Kilkenny’s own Jeremy Hickey aka Rarely Seen Above Ground, recently nominated for Best Album at the Choice Music Awards, you’ll also find a review of Devious Theatre’s ‘The War Of The Worlds‘ and a small article on Vultures. You can download the magazine here.

The nominations for the Irish Blog Awards 2009 have been released, with a whole host of links and blogs to check out. It’s going to take me quite a while to check them all out but I’m happy to say that I’m on the list for ‘Best Photo Blog’, and there’s also nominations for Devious Theatre and KilkennyMusic. You can check out the huge nominations list here and there’s still more to come.

And finally, as shooting continues for Vultures episodes 5 & 6, I’m delighted to announce that Vultures episode 4: ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates‘ will premiere on www.VulturesPI.com on Sunday the 1st of February.

My first venture into the world of directing was such an awesome experience, I really can’t wait for it to go online. This will also mean I can begin to blog about the process and release all my behind-the-scenes photographs and more, once the episode goes online. If you haven’t seen the previous episodes then now is the perfect time to catch up , all episodes are FREE TO WATCH HERE.

But for now, break time is over and it’s back to work we go…

Devious Theatre – A Highlight of 2008

Following up from my last post; Devious Theatre were back in the newspapers this weekend, this time thanks to John Cleere of the Kilkenny Advertiser. In his list of highlights of 2008, John wrote;

On the theatre scene there was only one word to describe the year: The Devious Theatre Company (ok, four words). Their first production, “Heart Shaped Vinyl”, had me hoping they weren’t going to be a one-hit wonder, but I needn’t have worried, they repeated the success not once, but twice, in 2008.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the film “Trainspotting“, but the stage version by Devious Theatre in The Watergate was the highlight of the year. They quickly followed it up with an original play, “Smitten”, by John Morton. I’ve no idea what their plans are for 2009, but already at this early stage of their development, a Devious Theatre production is a guaranteed good night out.

John Cleere was probably the first person to write about Devious Theatre, way back in the early days of our first production, Heart Shaped Vinyl, and he’s been a keen follower ever since. His reviews have undoubtedly helped attract attention to Devious and our work, last year we were on his list of Highlights of 2007. It’s great for us to be listed once again, so thanks to John Cleere in the Kilkenny Advertiser.

Devious Theatre aside, the weekend flew by in a blur of filming Vultures episodes 5 & 6. Early morning call-times into late night shoots, there were trains, there were castles and there was plenty of rain, wind and chavs, but above all else there was plenty of comedy. I’ll have more news throughout the week.

Devious Theatre – Scruffy Daddy Interview

The weekend has almost landed, for most people this will mean things slowing down for a day or two. If this is the case then in your downtime check out Scruff Daddy.

Scruff Daddy is a new online magazine dedicated to showcasing new and upcoming Irish artists. The reason I’m pointing it out is that there’s an awesome interview with Devious Theatre’s own John Morton.

The interview gives a bit of insight into all our productions to date, the inner workings and philosophy of Devious Theatre and more. For any fans of Devious Theatre, then it’s well worth a read.

Myself and John will be out and about on the streets of Kilkenny, filming ‘Vultures‘ episodes 5 & 6 throughout the weekend, so it means I won’t get a chance to post a blog. But I should have some behind-the-scenes photos and a new video blog ready to go online next week. Here comes the weekend…

***NOTE***

This is possibly the shortest blog post I have ever written. It makes me kind of sad but time is not on my side today.

War of the Worlds – Web Advert 1

We’re smack bang in the middle of ‘War of the Worlds‘, this past week we’ve been in the studio recording Devious Theatre’s first venture into radio-theatre.

As an actor, it’s an entirely different experience standing in the sound booth delivering lines into a microphone but one I’ve really enjoyed. It has also been one of the first times I’ve worked with Devious in a director capacity, with myself, John, Kevin and Ken sharing the role. It’s once again great to be working with Sound Engineer/Producer Alan Dawson and we’ve got plenty of projects planned together for the coming months. Most of the recording process is now finished, there’s still one or two scenes to be recorded.

Aside from the recording, there already seems to be a huge buzz about the show. I’m constantly being approached by people who are really excited and looking forward to our “re-envisioning” of the sci-fi classic which will be based in Kilkenny/Carlow. In true Devious Theatre fashion we’re now beginning our bombardment of local media, press releases are being sent out, radio interviews and I’ll have a whole bunch of behind-the-scenes photos going online soon.

In recent weeks I’ve been learning a lot about working with textures and photo manipulation so I decided to use these newly acquired skills to produce a promotional poster for the show; in the style of the front page of a newspaper released during the Martian invasion of Kilkenny. I’m still getting my head around this kind of work, it’s certainly not easy, but I’m quite happy with my first attempts.

In the run up to 30.10.08 we’re also releasing a series of adverts for the show, the ads will be running on KCLR96fm and we’ve got web-adverts; these adverts will be available for download through DeviousTheatre.com. We’re urging any bloggers or podcasters out there to please spread the word… “the sky is falling!”.

30.10.08 – Devious Theatre’s ‘War of the Worlds’

The Devious Theatre Company are very proud to announce that; we will be broadcasting a brand new hour long radio version of HG Wells’ sci-fi classic The War Of The Worlds, in conjunction with KCLR 96FM, 70 years to the date of the famous Orson Welles broadcast on C.B.S., October 30th 1938.

The Welles version was performed live on CBS with a fictional radio show being interrupted by news of a Martian invasion of earth. Convinced that what they were hearing was real, listeners fled their homes, frantically called loved ones and prepared themselves for the Martian attacks. The countrywide case of mass hysteria caused by the broadcast gave a chilling insight into how America would react if subjected to such an attack. A subsequent Mexican version of Welles radio adaptation led to 6 deaths and caused the radio station to be burnt down by outraged listeners.

Tune in on October 30th to hear our Kilkenny and Carlow located version of the classic tale. With a variety of different narrative devices and accounts of the invasion, we are able to piece together a chilling perspective on the attacks by the fearsome Martian tripods and their destruction of earth’s populace over the course of a 3 week period.

We are delighted to be working on this project with KCLR and we’re hoping that the audiences in Carlow and Kilkenny won’t take this one too seriously.

Check out the newly relaunched www.devioustheatre.com for more details on the project along with a whole host of goodies from all our previous productions.

The Devious Theatre Company’s performance of The War of the Worlds will be broadcast exclusively on KCLR on Thursday, October 30th at 9pm. It can also be listened to live on KCLR96FM.com. 

Next Page »