D’un get hopes up
Jon rules out reunion with comedy partner... as they’re both too busy
That’s the great thing about it – a lot of the material is out there on Youtube and people share it and in some ways it’s like you are still there. “As for ourselves, I’m working with Mary [Mcevoy] on The Matchmaker and we will be bringing it around the country on tour after the Gaiety. “We will be touring next year with that and The Successful TD and I’ve got a new play I did this year at Cork’s Summer Festival, Crowman by a new writer Katie Holly. It’s a one-man piece about a lonely guy in his 50s in Jon Kenny and Pat Shortt Tom and Jennifer on set rural Ireland who feels cut off from the world around him. I got a very solid reaction to it.”
Rural isolation is also the theme of John B Keane’s comedy The Matchmaker which he and ex-glenroe star Mary will be performing in the Gaiety all this week.
The play may date from the Kerry author’s book Letters Of A Matchmaker way back in 1975 but Jon says the theme is as relevant today as it was then.
He added: “It’s still very apt because the essence of the play, when you strip everything away, is loneliness, people ending up on their own. It’s not just about people who have gone past a certain age because there is quite a mix of characters of all different ages.
“It was controversial at the time but Keane was a voice for all these characters. His thinking was very liberal with regards to sexual preferences or orientations.
“He has a line in the play where one character says he was for a while interested in other men. Keane writes back as the matchmaker saying every man’s business is his own. It was ahead of its time.”
Needless to say, the father of two has no wish to retire and revealed he was healthy after battling cancer in 2000 and undergoing a heart bypass several years ago.
He added: “I feel good. There are lots more plans.”
The Matchmaker runs at the Gaiety Theatre until Saturday, November 10.
People still suggest we get back together 18 years later JON KENNY ON HIS COMEDY PAL PAT SHORTT
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