ROLLICKING ROSSMEISTER RUMINATIONS
One-man show is ideal for a global broadcast
The business of presenting plays online may catch on after the pandemic, especially for shorter plays that can extend their reach worldwide. Typical is the welcome reappearance of Rory Nolan as Ross O’Carroll Kelly, in Postcards From The Ledge, returning as a live worldwide broadcast from Mermaid Centre in Bray this Saturday, May 15, at 8pm, and on demand from May 16-23. Tickets, priced at €20, can be bought at landmarkproductions.ie with a post-show talk (€5) involving author Paul Howard, Rory Nolan and Róisín Ingle.
Like Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, Rory Nolan has nailed the part of Ross so precisely that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Postcards is his fourth outing as the passionately self-admiring Rossmeister, whose interest in women is purely sexual but whose devotion to rugby is the sacred love of a lifetime. And come to think of it, Henry Higgins is just as much of a monstrous egoist as Ross himself. His interest in Liza in the original Pygmalion is purely a means of demonstrating his superior theories about class distinction.
Postcards is a one-man show with other characters appearing voice-only on Ross’s mobile phone. On its first outing in 2017, language, that might have outraged the politically correct, had women in the audience chortling delightedly. It’s 2029, Ireland is on the brink of an economic boom, and Ross, now 50, with an expanding waistline, is working as an estate agent, sent to value a house in Glenageary that was once his own home.
While he waits for a buyer, he reflects on his life with some satisfaction. His wife is now Taoiseach, his family is socially top-notch, but disaster looms because his daughter is due to marry a classical musician who has no interest in rugby, a double catastrophe as far as Ross is concerned.
Voices on the phone are those of Lisa Lambe, Kate Gilmore, Laurence Kinlan (always a scenestealer as Ross’s son Ronan), Caoimhe O’Malley and Philip O’Sullivan.
‘Ross, now 50, with an expanding waistline, is working as an estate agent’
His daughter is due to marry a musician with no interest in rugby. A catastrophe
The production is also part of a nationwide virtual tour, including the Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire; Town Hall, Galway; An Grianán, Letterkenny; Glór, Ennis; Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, the Courthouse Arts Centre, Wicklow and Wexford Arts Centre.
The new, free INO Friday Opera Explorer series continues into its third session this week, Friday May 14, with arias from Berlioz (La Damnation de Faust), Gounod’s Faust and Romeo et Juliette, and Massenet’s Cendrillon and Werther. Singers are Sarah Shine, Gemma Ní Bhriain, Naomi Louisa O’Connell, Gavan Ring and John Molloy.
The series will continue each Friday at 5pm until May 28, and will be available later on YouTube. The arias, recorded in various locations, have subtitle translations and are presented with an attractive light touch. Singers give a brief background to their arias, and the links between performances are short and to the point, with no unnecessary waffle.
The whole series will consist of work from 20 operas and will contain arias from upcoming INO productions later this year, all going well. Artistic director Fergus Sheil interviews an Irish composer after each programme. Details at irishnationalopera.ie
Galway international Arts Festival (GIAF) will take place this year from August 28 to September 18. Full details, a mix of live and online events, will be announced in June. One of the main features will be the second part of John Gerrard’s Mirror Pavilion, Leaf Work, opening in Derrigimlagh Bog on August 28, which will run throughout the festival.
GIAF have announced a new commissioning/ bursary strand, Elevate. The aim is to support Irish artists, working across all platforms, to engage both live and digital audiences as they create and present original ideas based on social issues of 21st-century Ireland. Full details including closing date for applications at giaf.ie
The Heineken Big Top feature with seven major performers will be rescheduled to July 2022.