Lean and hungry festivals to give it their best shot
Organisers are doggedly determined to raise the curtain on at least some shows to give theatre buffs their annual fix of the best Irish productions
Despite repeated announcements that outdoor events are safer for artists and audience, the Government’s latest restrictions have led to the cancelling of all Dublin Fringe outdoor performances, although indoor performances and displays will proceed. And most of those are sold-out, presumably because of the restricted audience numbers, including the one-woman play Mustard, by Eva O’Connor to be performed on the Peacock stage at The Abbey, (September 15-17), at the Little Theatre, Skerries (Sept 20 ) and Glór, Ennis (Sept 26). Refunds will be paid for all cancelled shows. Details fringefest.com.
Inevitably, the Dublin Theatre Festival has a particularly lean and hungry look this year. Most of the entries are either highly unconventional, online or in open spaces (which are now obviously dubious). A lot of them are the sort you normally associate with the Fringe. Cast numbers have cut down possibilities and spacing is restricting the capacity of indoor venues. And there’s always the possibility of the Government slipping out new regulations to stall the process.
Embargo by Deirdre Kinahan has a powerful historical theme about a little-known incident during the War of Independence, to be staged at the Enterprise waiting room, Connolly Station (Oct 2-4) and the Pumphouse at Dublin Port (Oct 9-11).
It’s May 1920. Dockers and railwaymen refused to transport armed troops or to handle weapons arriving from Britain, in a politically motivated strike action. Civil disobedience and labour agitation raged alongside guerrilla warfare. The IRA faced internal conflict as people experienced all the problems of warfare, and the play is the story of three people, played by Callan Cummins, Matthew Malone and Mary Murray, caught up in the turmoil.
A note about the venues: Connolly Station is accessible, but attendees at the Pumphouse will meet at Dublin Port Company and walk about 10 minutes over rough ground to the Pumphouse.
One venue with enough space to cater for a large cast and a larger distanced audience is the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, where a site-specific job is planned for Patrick Campbell’s poem The Great Hunger in a partnership between The Abbey Theatre and Imma. It will involve a large cast of actors and musicians and a lot of walking, taking in about 1.2km over a 90-minute presentation. Definite booking can’t go ahead before getting a final go-ahead from the Government. Preview October 1. Running Oct 2,3 and 5-10.
The most recognisable production in terms of traditional theatre is Least Like The Other, Searching For Rosemary Kennedy, the opera by composer Brian Irvine and Netia Jones, an Irish National Opera production, first produced at last year’s Galway festival. It tells the disturbing story of President Kennedy’s sister, Rosemary who, aged 23, in 1941, was given a frontal lobotomy, a highly controversial treatment for mental disorders. The operation was a disaster that left her needing full-time care in institutions until she died in 2005.
Unfortunately it’s sold-out at present, but there are some trailers on the irishnationalopera.ie website that give a good idea of the radical style being used.
It was the same disastrous brain operation that destroyed the life of Tennessee Williams’ sister, also called Rose, who is remembered in his plays Suddenly Last Summer and The Glass Menagerie. O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College, Sept 25, 26 and 27.
There’s always a possibility of new Government regulations