West Kerry’s Michael is hooked on a feeling

Fergus Dennehy talks to West Kerry playwright and actor, Michael Hilliard Mulcahy about learning to listen in the wings of theatres, working under the tutelage of his heroes and influences, loving his work and his big plans for the future.

I FIRST heard the name Michael Hilliard Mulcahy, or Mick as he prefers to be called, when he emailed me last week telling me how much he enjoyed my interview section, so you know, he was already off to a good start with me from the beginning.

He went on to ask whether there was any chance that he himself could be interviewed and after exhanging details and arranging times, he sent me on short synopsis of his achievments. It was only after reading this that I lambasted myself not knowing about this man before, such is the success that he has achieved nationally with his work.

The Castlegregory playwright and actor won the ‘Eamon Keane Full Length Play’ award at ‘Listowel Writers Week’ in 2010 for his play WAVES while one of his other works ‘The Mountain’ was nominated for the same award back in 2009 as well as the ‘Maguire International Playwriting’ award in the U.S.

More recently, his one man play entitled ‘After Sarah Miles’ has garnered rave reviews and played to packed houses at the Viking Theatre in Dublin and the Pavilion Theatre and will soon be gracing the Castlegregory Summer Festival on July 9 at The Clubroom venue at 9pm.

All of this is not bad for someone who says that they got into acting, just by happening to glance at a poster one evening as he was walking home.

“I’ll tell you how it started for me, just by acting the clown really at parties and things. By sheer mimicry and making up stories and doing accents and voices and whatever was going on around me and because of this, I heard it said to me a couple of times at parties or pubs that I should try out acting,” said Mick, talking to

last week.

“I had already had it in the back of my mind and then one day, I just happened to be passing the old Siamsa Tíre across from the Dominican’s Church and I saw a poster for a local drama group, the Zeiber Theatre company and I just walked in.”

“I met this man called John Faher, John would be well known in the Tralee drama circles, and he invited me that night to the dress rehearsals and I kind of got into it straight away from there on out,” he continued.

Mick’s first ever role was a cameo in the famous Brian Friel play ‘Philadelphia Here I Come’, a play whose message still strikes a chord to him to this day and one which he says got him hooked to the world of theatre and more importantly, the craft of writing.

“I played a character in that called Ned. It was a cameo role that I had, he is one of the boys that say goodbye to Gar on his last night and I remember just sitting on the wings of the theatre listening to the play as it happened on stage.”

“Looking back on it, that particular play really got in under my skin, I just felt that we can identify with it so much you know? The small town feel, the tale of emigration, the relationship with his father – the whole thing, it was just so musical and enthralling and it hooked me, it really did.”

“If I’m being honest aswell, that play is where I got my love of writing aswell. Like I was saying, I was listening in the wings listening to the language of the play – the seeds for writing were sown here. I’d have been very influenced by Brian Friel aswell, I love him and