An inspired declaration of independents
Emer O’Kelly finds Irish theatre is alive and kicking with a brilliant can-do spirit
PRODUCTIONS companies come and go in the theatre world; sadly, mostly they go. Theatre is an expensive art form, with the art having to make itself anew on a nightly basis. So it’s not surprising there is a constant grouse amongst theatre practitioners that the balance of state funding is “unfair” — notably to the Abbey, and to a lesser extent to the Gate. But the truth is there just isn’t enough in the first place.
But there’s an “alternative truth”, to use the currently fashionable term. And three independent producers feature in this in Ireland, with a trawl through 2017 productions throwing up their names more than once.
They are Ann Clarke (Landmark), Jim Culleton (Fishamble), and to a lesser extent, Donal Shiels (Verdant). They feature in the “alternative truth” because despite perpetual financial difficulty, they are surviving triumphantly, usually with consistently high production values. Culleton is also taking on development projects that are more often seen only in heavily subsidised national theatres, as well as directing most of his own productions.
Druid falls into another category, Garry Hynes having established it almost as a second “national theatre” in her championing of the “alternative” Irish voice. Her revival of the sobering, ugly classic, Eugene McCabe’s King of the Castle , was a triumph in itself.
Ann Clark’s Landmark company, in co-production with Galway International Arts Festival, was responsible for the spectacularly impressive Woyzeck which premiered in Galway, and went on to transfer internationally as well as featuring in the Dublin Theatre Festival. Directed by Conall Morrison, it was based on the 19th-century Georg Buchner novel and featured Schubert’s exquisite Winterreise song cycle. More opera than play, its cast was headed by Patrick O’Kane and Camille O’Sullivan, as well as featuring an overwhelmingly powerful set by Jamie Vartan.
Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk, Landmark’s triumph of a previous year was deservedly revived on the Abbey stage, albeit with a couple of cast changes, “big names” Stephen Rea and Cillian Murphy being replaced by Olwen Fouere and Tadhg Murphy.
And Clarke’s championing of Paul Howard’s wily, amoral and wildly endearing Ross O’Carroll Kelly brought him back to the Gaiety stage in Dublin in a one-man play Postcards from the Ledge, predictably successfully.
For Culleton, it was a springtime triumph at the Project, with the Fishamble production of Eva O’Connor’s Maz and Bricks, a sad little anti-love story of extraordinary impact, with the author and the wonderful Stephen Jones playing the two characters.
For the Dublin Theatre Festival, Culleton teamed up with author Sebastian Barry for an extraordinary work, On Blueberry Hill, which featured Niall Buggy and David Ganly as two old lags in Mountjoy, their separate and conjoined lives a tale of a kind of survival against the odds.
And Donal Shiels, who co-produced with Decadent a revival of Conor McPherson’s The Weir, also premiered under his sole Verdant banner Michael Morpurgo’s deeply touching Private Peaceful, a one-man play adapted by the author from his 2003 novel. That touring production featured a truly impressive performance of vulnerability from Shane O’Regan as the boy soldier awaiting execution for desertion.
‘They are surviving triumphantly, with high production values’
There was plenty more in 2017, notably under the new directorships in both the Abbey and Gate, which I plan to write about next Sunday — Christmas Eve.
Speaking of which, you’d better be quick with A Christmas Carol, the Dickens tale that is so much a part of the season for many people, will bow out after the performance on next Saturday. And it would be a pity to miss this delightful, truncated version of the classic.
Antelope productions and the Viking Theatre in Clontarf are co-producing a new version, just 75 minutes long, adapted by Michael James Ford.
It’s a three-hander with Ford, Ruairi Heading and Helene Montague interchanging between the roles as diverse as the Two Portly Gentlemen, sister Fan, nephew Fred, Mr Fezziwig and, of course, the immortal Cratchits (with Tiny Tim god-blessing us, one and all), while Ford takes on the lion’s share with Scrooge himself.
The piece is performed in narrative style and despite the editing, preserves the sense and feel of the original, with the adaptor choosing orotund passages alternately full of fun and doom to take the audience into the sense and breadth of it all.
We even have Tiny Tim singing In the Bleak Midwinter in a childish treble, with Ruairi Heading bringing tears to the eyes.
And as Scrooge, released from the uneasy thrall of the spirits of Christmases past, present and yet to come, yields to the joy of the season, learning to “keep Christmas as it should be kept”, it’s easy to see why Christmas as we keep it is sometimes considered to be the invention of Mr Charles Dickens.
Although it should never be forgotten that he took his cue from a loftier figure: it was the Prince Consort, the German Prince Albert, who brought Christmas trees and jingle bells to England.