Beckett show at Hazelwood
MAY is a woman in her forties. She paces back and forth on a strip of bare landing outside her dying – if not already dead – mother’s room.
This is the scene that awaits culture vultures at a special theatrical event at Hazelwood House this week.
Local theatre company Blue Raincoat is staging three of Samuel Beckett’s most powerful short plays in the grounds of the former Saehan Media factory in the atmospheric grounds of Hazelwood Demesne.
A Piece Of Monologue, Play and Footfalls will be performed promenade style throughout the building.
Speaking about the production, Artistic Director Niall Henry said: “We are very excited to present these works in such a wonderful space. The location opens up such amazing possibilities for these great plays.
“We will place each play in a particular location in the old factory and guide the audience through the large space to each performance - a physical and a theatrical journey as such.”
Niall got the idea for a drama within the walls of the former factory when he visited an exhibition there last year.
“They’ve done an amazing job,” he said, referring to the new owners of Hazelwood David and Sue Raethorne.
“You cannot be but impressed by the scale of the rooms. It’s extraordinary.
“It really puts it up to you.
“It’s easy to look at it and think it’d be marvellous to do some Beckett plays,” he said.
The acoustics, unsurprisingly for such an enormous building, Niall describes as “crazy and lovely”
There’s one room where an actor has to speak quietly so the crew have given her a mic but everywhere else it’s just the actor’s voice.
Niall agrees the vast spaces still doesn’t quite offer the same level of challenge as a play on windy Streedagh strand or amid gales on top of Knocknarea, other outside locations they’ve performed at before.
A Piece of Monologue stars Ciaran McCauley and is directed by John Carty. The light fades up on a room in which a white-haired old man – identified simply as Speaker – stands motionless facing a blank wall. After a ten-second pause the actor begins speaking and continues without a break till the end of the play.
John Carty also directs the second piece, Play, starring Hilary Bowan Walsh, Miriam Needham and Bob Kelly. The curtain rises on three identical grey funeral urns about three feet tall, arranged in a row facing the audience. They contain three characters.
Bob Kelly directs the final piece, Footfalls starring Sandra O’Malley and Hilary Bowan Walsh
“The actors are excited,” said Niall. “There seems to be a good word out about it. We always try to find something to put us out of our safety zone!”. Tickets: -71-917 0431.