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.

One Week To Go!

Today marks one week until the opening night of Devious Theatre’s production of Dario Fo’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’.

Make sure and keep an eye on DeviousTheatre.com for all sorts of behind the scenes bloggery, news and updates.

Supermeat For Dogs!

For behind the scenes blogs and ticket bookings check out DeviousTheatre.com.

A Painting by Julie Moorhouse

Two years ago I got an email from artist Julie Moorhouse, asking me if I would pose for a painting for an upcoming exhibition ‘Ecce Homo’.

I’d never done anything like it before so couldn’t resist giving it a try. I met with Julie one afternoon, we had a great chat then she took some photos and sketches. Unfortunately I never made it to see the exhibition when it ran in the South Tipperary Arts Centre and so never saw the painting, until now.

Last week I got the above photo and despite being slightly weirded out every time I look at it, I think the painting is pretty awesome. Thanks Julie!

Funded By The Local Arts Office

Back in November, I was delighted to receive financial assistance from the local Arts Office in the form of partial funding towards the purchase of equipment as part of the Arts Act Grant 2009.

The partial funding has helped me make my recent purchases; a Nikon Speedlight Sb-900 flash unit and an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 printer.

The Nikon Speedlight Sb-900, my second flash, will help me to develop my skills using the strobist style of photography. Using both my flashes through wireless remote triggers will give me a sort of mobile studio set-up.

Whilst I still need to get some softboxes and stands, I can’t wait to spend the next few months experimenting with double flash set-ups and coming to grips with the ridiculous amounts of settings possible between my Sb-800 and Sb-900. I really think it’s going to have an amazing affect on my photography.

Getting the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 photo printer means that for the first time ever I can offer printing services to anybody I shoot with, able to provide prints as large as A3 size. It also means I will finally be able to exhibit my work in print form. I’m currently working on a plan for my first ever exhibition, which will hopefully take place later in the year.

I began doing print tests during the week, I’m still trying to tweak variances between colour settings on my monitor and the printer, but it’s really awesome to see my shots in large print form for the first time.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be making some adjustments to the website to allow for print purchasing. Details on the exhibition will be announced in due time and hopefully the results of my new flash set-up will start appearing online soon.

All that’s left for me to say is thanks very much to all the staff in the local Arts Office and the independent members of the panel who approved my application, the support is very much appreciated and will be put to good use in the coming months.

Devious Theatre’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’

Tickets available from the Set Theatre and RollerCoaster Records. For further details and online ticket bookings check out DeviousTheatre.com.

Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

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

Vegetarian Kilkenny: Christmas “No Meat & Greet”

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.

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