Hanging around with DENIS
Irish star on friendship with Brian Friel, working with Colin Farrell and his grim new role
DENIS Conway is getting into the nitty gritty of his latest role, something those outside the acting profession might baulk at. While reading books on the history of hangmen, he’s transforming himself from a Dublin-based dad of two into the mind of Harry Wade, a part time hangman and the centrepiece of Martin McDonagh’s play which kicks off at the Gaiety Theatre next week.
‘There is a famous hangman called Pierrepont who was historically the guy they used to bring over to Ireland to do the hanging.’ Denis says. ‘Pierrepoint was a real person but Harry Wade is probably a combination of a few hangmen. Pierrepoint is a very by the book upstanding guy whereas Harry is a bit of a show-off and he is quite jealous of Pierrepoint as he has hanged more people than Harry has.’
It was, says Denis, an honourable profession and a part time job for the hangmen who were employed to do the deed before the abolition of capital punishment.
And Harry is a decent man, an upstanding member of the community and when he isn’t holding the noose, he’s running a pub.
‘You can’t judge your character because then you are in trouble as you are commenting on the character and you aren’t playing him,’ says Denis. ‘ We all have dark sides, we all have funny sides and we all have straight sides. So if you get to explore the dark side but it’s safe because you are only playing a character, it’s actually a wonderful thing to do.’
One of the reasons it’s possible is that the writing in Hangmen is so good, Denis believes.
‘Martin McDonagh in the vein of Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Harold Pinter, he is so good that if you obey what he has written in the script, he releases all sorts of colour for you and makes your job easier,’ says Denis of the playwright and filmmaker.
McDonagh, he says, can see the play in full when he’s writing, every stage direction, every moment and he is always correct. It’s the third McDonagh play Denis has done after The Lieutenant of Inishmore in London’s West End and the Lonesome West in the Gaiety beforehand.
He was also in Alexander with Colin Farrell who is now headed for the Oscars on Sunday night, something Denis feels is more than deserved.
‘I am delighted for Colin,’ he says of the movie where he played Nearchus. ‘We were on the Alexander movie for nigh on six months and it didn’t do well particularly though I though it was a good film.
‘And I felt bad for Colin as his name was on the books as it were.
I am delighted for him that he is being recognised as a fine, fine actor and it’s not just about film star looks.’
Denis actually came to acting later in life, not turning professional until he hit his 30s. Though he has appeared in many films and TV series, which he also loves, he describes theatre as his baseline.
‘I love being on the stage,’ he says. ‘Film and TV are different disciplines but in the theatre you go from the start of the story to the end every night.’
In the past he had a theatre company called Ouroborus and it was through this that he struck up a close friendship with Brian Friel.
‘In 2007 it was the 400th anniversary of the Fight of the Earls and I decided to tour a that Brian had written a play called Making History along the journey that O’Neill took from the battle of Kinsale to Rome.
‘It took two years to organise and when we toured it Brian had had his stroke but he eventually got to see it in Glenties in Donegal.
‘It was a night!,’ says Denis of the magical evening. He was there, Seamus Heaney was there, John Hume was there — it was like a who’s who of Northern Ireland. That night I asked him for the rights to Translations and he said no problem.’
Denis became close friends with the legendary playwright and his family. They wrote to each other often and Denis called to see Brian shortly before he passed away, knowing it would probably be the last time they talked.
Inadvertently he also met his wife Elaine Sissons through Friel’s work as she was a friend of someone who he’d played opposite in a Friel play.
And Martin McDonagh introduced him to another pal as Chris Walley (pictured, inset with Alex Murphy) of the Young Offenders starred with him in the Lieutenant of Inishmore and the pair became pals.
He’s friends now too with Alex Murphy and the pair asked Peter Foote to write in a character for Denis in the Young Offenders, given that he’s also a proud Cork man.
‘I was delighted as I thought I would be able to do a role in my Cork accent but the part they wrote for me was a B&B owner in Kildare — and it was shot about a mile from my mother’s house in Cork!’ he says laughing. ‘They are great lads, great fun.’
Denis lost his arts funding in the crash so his own company had to close and he still feels we are not doing enough to nurture the young Brian Friels, Tom Murphys and Martin McDonagh.
‘You need the plankton to feed the whale,’ he says. ‘I think Catherine Martin is doing a good job but the arts is still very low down the pecking order,’ he says.
‘We call our ships after writers The Swift, The Joyce, but lads, they all emigrated because you didn’t feed them!’
Hangmen is at the Gaiety Theatre from March 11 tickets from
‘I’m delighted Colin is being recognised as a fine actor’