Johnny I Hardly Ye: Jim Nolan Premiere at Garter Lane

Garrett Keogh Michael Hayes  Irish Times photo

It is a feast or a famine and this week, not one but two new professional theatre productions opened in Waterford venues. My review of a Eugene O Neill revival at the Theatre Royal is posted here. At Garter Lane, there was that rarest of theatrical events - a world premiere of a brand new play. Better still, one with a living playwright in the house, a real set, a convincing cast of characters on stage and off  and a plot with plausible contemporary moral dilemmas.

Jim Nolan's new play was eagerly anticipated and the consensus among opening night punters was that it lived up to high expectations. Set in a provincial newspaper office with a raggedy band of hard pressed hacks in the throes of being  taken over by a hard nosed media consortium, it weaves in a reference to WW1 and  a dubious 1916 commemoration thread. The title I understand comes  from a thread where a report on a damaged war veteran is sanitised  to present a  shinier happier version of history. As ever, Nolan's  dialogue is fast paced, witty and rings true- a feature confirmed by several of the local pressmen present from the News &Star and Munster Express.  Many of the other Jim Nolan hallmarks are present; the redemptive power of amateur choral singing, the Sylvie style declamatory monologue towards the end, a cast of recurring offstage characters.

Although serious issues were at the core, there was much humour in the day to day work-room banter and the first night audience laughed heartily throughout. There was a strong performances across the ensemble. Michael Hayes is familiar from the TV adverts for a certain phone company, (yes the one with the Sue the pig in it). His  culchie mammy's boy, Lenny Harris could have been downright corny but it wasn't. Lenny won us over and we laughed with rather than at him. Tall and imposing, Ciaran McMahon was arrogance personified. Jenni Ledwell was a matronly pragmatist and the veteran Abbey actor, Garrett Keogh the flawed hero/ deputy editor making a final principled stand . Ema Lemon made her professional debut in the role of  eager junior reporter, Lisa Reilly.

There was a air of civic pride in the local provenance of the event. Critics from the Irish Times and Independent attended along with  journalists from the local press. Best dressed man was Liam Murphy,  looking dapper in navy blue pin stripe. 'Yes indeed-the occasion of a new Jim Nolan play deserves no less', the arts critic of the Munster Express quipped. Waterford Blackwater No 5 Gin served at the interval was a treat. A standing ovation rolled into a tribute to the late Richard 'Tich' Meagher. After the show , thespians, crew and patrons repaired to recently reopened Tully's Bar (formerly McLoughlins)  across the road to mull over the evening.  It was like old times.




 

Buzzy  for opening of new play in #Waterford -sharply observed news room dialogue with a topical 1916 thread Bravo Jim Nolan

— Fidleir (@fidleir) March 9, 2016

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Jim Nolan : Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye from Culturefox.tv on Vimeo.

Lights Out On Red Kettle Theatre Co

The appointment of liquidators to the Waterford's Red Kettle Theatre Co. has been a cause for dismay when announced last month .  Established in the mid 80's it has generated  civic pride and a source of quality entertainment over the last three decades and many times featured in these posts.

Best known for the  association  with playwright Jim Nolan,,  Red Kettle premiered many of his plays in Waterford beginning with The Gods are Angry, Miss Kerr. It was encouraging to the whole scene that while other writers left for the groves of academia, Nolan chose to stay and write and produce in his native city. Together  he and Red Kettle made Waterford a beacon for what could be achieved by a regional theatre company on relatively low subsidies. At the same time the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera attracted many overseas visitors and the Theatre Royal was packed for a fortnight of musical theatre and operetta. Quite how that festival  slipped away in 2012 without any gloomy pronouncement, I can't fathom given that every small town has an active musical society.

Nial Tobín in Red Kettle The Salvage Shop 

'The magic is gone' said Liam Murphy, arts and theatre critic of Thye Munster Express  on Morning Ireland when the news broke  and the tone was mournful, not quite on the scale of the announcement of the closure of the Glass Factory but no less symbolic.   Coming in the same year as the death of Bryan Flynn, extraordinary man of theatre,  whose original musical Pentimenti was premiered by the company it has been a grim time  for Waterford arts.

1999 poster Light Opera Fest

Red Kettle along with other regional theatre companies  had it's  Arts Council funding slashed in recent years. Spraoi Festival,  which has to be the most accessible arts experience in the country and  which  reaches the largest proportion of Waterford citizens not to mention the many visitors it attracts has also had its funding slashed to ribbons.  Cllr Mary Roche who was on the first Red Kettle board, has done a trawl through the funding stream for the urban centres outside Dublin and Cork and  the results make for depressing  and infuriating reading. Her report posted on her blog  puts flesh on some misgivings I felt as I attended events this year.  While I love opera and have travelled to see many productions, I don't see how the Arts Council can justify spending almost  €600,000 on a single production of an avant garde opera production which at best will appeal to a niche audience. The BGE Energy Theatre was half empty on the one of three night when I visited, Wide Open Opera's producton of Nixon in China. . Arts practitioners around the country must read about it and weep. Nick Bankes Chairman of the Imagine Arts Festival which runs in October in Waterford had this to say on the funding level of the Imagine Arts Festival

' it seems disproportionate that the arts council can put 1/4 million into 5/6 nights and only 11k into ten days of 80 events including some original events at the Imagine Festival.
The most bitter commentry is in this week's Phoenix column in the News &Star which gives a sense of the alienation felt by those involved in Waterford arts scene ''We can but look (again) and marvel at the success (and €3 million support for Galway and it's notion of being a centre for the arts. pause for a while and consider the €6 million thrown without demur at Limerick City of Culture and suggest for the umpteenth time that WE ARE NOT BEING HEARD'

On a positive note, the Waterford Youth Arts under artistic director Ollie Breslin,  mounted an impressive production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible at Garter Lane Arts Centre.  There were some remarkable performances particularly from the male cast and a terrific set from Dermot Quinn. The launch of a new musical society augurs well for the future.

Dreamland Delivers at Garter Lane

In Waterford at the weekend , without any festival fanfare,  there was a feast of culture on offer. There were full houses at the Theatre Royal for Finbar Wright and Jack L. Christchurch Cathedral was packed to hear Finghin Collins play Gershwin and previews for Dreamland, a new play by Jim Nolan were sold out in Garter Lane. (The list is by no means comprehensive). The  play opened officially on Tuesday night at Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford to a full house and a standing ovation. There was a  spirit of  quiet pride in the air. Waterford residents are rightly proud of  author, local native Jim Nolan who has played a huge role in making Waterford a national beacon for theatrical activity  both as a writer and director. And pride also in the venue which celebrates 30 years of ventures with this production.

There was a certain weight of expectation given the quality of Nolan's canon but Dreamland delivered  with a strong cast of no less than eight players and the quality of the writing. The play is set in a 1930's seaside village. The plot hinges on an imaginative but deluded scheme to open a theme park in a seaside town  set against a backdrop of  the political tensions of lingering civil war resentments and the repressive activities of a quasi-fascist movement. The international context is referenced with the arrival a Jewish clarinet player and his daughter  played by Michael Power and Holly Browne. There are resonances with  Nolan's play, The Salvage Shop with gas masks and a 1930's generator featuring in the clever set  set design by Dermot Quinn. The struggle against fascism was a central element also of The Guernica Hotel set in the Spanish Civil War premiered at Garter Lane in 1994.

Playwright Jim Nolan

It was wonderful to see and hear the stagecraft in the sage like Doc played by veteran actor,  Des Keogh.   Brendan Conroy plays Kinnane a returned Yank, a Quixotic character full of hope and schemes.  The title refers to his plan to convert  the  bones of a washed up whale into a tourist attraction in a bid to recreate a happier time in his past. He forms an extended  family grouping of sorts with Doc, his grandson  Dinny,  (Conall Keating) and  widow, Grace (Catherine Walsh). There is real menace in the portrayal of  Blueshirt characters by  Karl Shiels and Michael Quinlan.  It is perhaps the authors' most autobiographical play to date with events from his own experience knitted into the thread of the play.  You can read an interview with the author in a the Irish Examiner here  .  A link to the 1987 radio documentary about the anti jazz campaign and the Duignan brothers is here http://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/jazz.html

Dreamland runs nightly at Garter Lane Arts until March 1st and then tours nationally

Related Posts Trip to Brighton for Silver Anniversary 

listen to ‘Audience Reaction to Dreamland’ on Audioboo  WLR recorded audience reaction in this audioboo

Garter Lane Arts Centre celebrating 30 years

On the Razzle at Garter Lane

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Garter Lane Arts centre in Waterford city bring On the Razzle to the stage for a fortnight as part of their summer season .  There was much to enjoy in this in house  production of a Tom Stoppard play directed by Jim Nolan and superlatives were flying about the capacity house at opening night as patrons and punters enjoyed the sugar rush of the sweetest  of theatrical confections  after some more sombre fare earlier in the season.
Here are my top ten reasons why I recommend you go.

1 Huge Cast A cast of dozens; which in this minimalist  era of pared down casts and  of one man shows is a cause for celebration if nothing else. Supporting the excellent leads, there are loads of cameo roles. Paul Dillon as the German Man made the most of his one line.

2 The Script Tom Stoppard's witty word play.`I was amazed to discover that this quintessentially British writer was Czech born and English is presumably not his mother tongue. The witticisms, malapropisms puns and double entendres in this screwball farce come so quick and fast that you can't catch all of them. 'I shan't feel married til I've had the consommé'  'He'll alter you before dessert - he'll desert you before the altar, just two that come to mind. Much of the humour is in the main character's attempts to correct his linguistic errors maybe a relic of Stoppards own journey in language aquisition.

3 A real live brass band : A sextet of brass instruments courtesy of Waterford City Brass add a luxury element to the panoply of sound effects a la La Boheme here . My only complaint is having assembled such a resource, they might employed them to play some final bows/ exit music while they were there at all.

4 The Pipes And if cornets and euphoniums weren't enough, to top it all a bagpiper, John Stone appears in the cafe scene for a birthday surprise.

5 The Set design by John O Donoghue makes the Garter Lane stage feel like Covent Garden  with a complex plot evolving on several levels .  With one caveat , Vienna was not quite the gaudy carnival I expected with a distinction between scene one shop set and scene three Vienna street set not clearly marked.

6 Choreography.  Not too much  dancing as such but the choreography  by Libby Seward of the Imperial Cafe waiters scene was beautifully done.

7 The Acting : What a feat of memory the main roles were. Gerry Kane was hilarious as pompous word mangling merchant Zangler. Hugo O'Donovan plays  his chief sales assistant with a manic intensity, that left me a bit frazzled sitting in the front row. Vickie Dunphy as his side kick, Christopher was all wide eyed innocence. Damien McDonnell was terrific as the wily, devil may care servant Melchior . Denise Quinn played  Miss Blumenblatt with a Wildean flourish.
Other notable parts were a randy coachman , Padraig O Griofa, French maid Anita O Keeffe and Nick Bankes as a Belgian Foreigner, Rob Doherty and Ema Lemon as the lovers, Vivienne Coughlan as Madame Knorr and Lorraine Murphy as Frau Fischer, Clare Smith was the put upon maid.

8 The Venue : Garter Lane has very comfortable solid seats, with a steep enough rake to allow a great view from every seat.  the sort that don't creak and move when your neighbour crosses their legs.

9 The costumes : There was no  feeling of scrimping in the gorgeous 19th century, fin the siecle  costumes from NoMac

10 The Horse of Course: How could we not love a production with brass band and a pantomime horse. This one was worthy of Flann O Brien with the horse being part bicycle.

On the Razzle runs at Garter Lane until June 22nd

  

       Photo from Munster Express 14June 

Related reviews 

http://cathydesmond.blogspot.ie/2011/09/trip-to-brighton-for-silver-anniversary.html

Trip to 'Brighton' for silver anniversary

It is said prophets are not recognised in their own land . The same cannot be said of playwright Jim Nolan in the South Eastern capital, Waterford. Weeks after his play , the Gods Are Angry Miss Kerr had a run at the Theatre Royal,  his most recent play Brighton  (premiered in 2010) was reprised in the commissioning theatre, Garter Lane in the playwrights home town marking Nolan's 25th anniversary of writing for theatre.
 There was a full house on Saturday night for the final night before the company embark on a ten theatre national tour with the author himself in attendance. 

I enjoyed this production under director Ben Barnes and there were strong performances from Andrew Macklin, Gillian Hanna and Christopher Saul.  I hesitate before committing to a whole evening in the company of a relatively small cast and you couldn't help hoping the malevolent Father Mackey or the octagenarian bottom pincher might make an appearance but the production was sure footed and the writing had plenty of wit and humour to stop you itching for the remote control.  I particularly liked English actor, Christopher Saul's voice which had the resonant quality to it  one would expect from an RSC thespian.

In Brighton, in tandem with the sense of an ode to the the triumph of the human spirit, Nolan returns to  a theme explored in The Salvage Shop, namely  the therapeutic power of amateur music  making. Lily is propelled out of her death bed and  anti social Jack is galavanised by the project of forming a choir. Jack's  appeal to Lily has the same quality as Syvie's speech about the imperfect performance in the local town hall being just as important as a Pavarotti concert in one of the world's best venues, a sentiment which has given me much encouragement over the years. It is the striving is the thing , not the end result which matters.

I was reminded of my visits to Cahercalla Community Hospital in Ennis and of the late Jim Cleary who played his accordion every day until he passed away last year at the age of 93. Even as he belted out  The Bucks of Oranmore or the Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door in a faltering tempo, I had a sense that there was just as much heart to his performance as any on the  Glór stage and never failed to be moved by his playing, his audience just as important as any at a glittering first night,  

Lily's glee at her initiation into the world of gambling recalled  my own  introduction to the world of yankees and trebles and trips to the betting shop when the tedium of the routine of lab work at a Dublin hospital was relieved by the  daily betting routine around a Cheltenham Race week. What fun!

Afficionados in the audience included local writer and broadcaster Éibhear Walsh and his mother. The Cork based acadamic  tells me that he is looking forward to reading from his  memoir, Cissie's Abbatoir  in the study hall of his old alma mater, De La Salle College for the forthcoming Imagine Festival.   Contralto Anne Woodworth spoke to me about her current academic research project into music and health. We also spotted troubadour Francie White who gave a memorable performance during last years festival and will be performing again this year with Dunmore East guitar supremo Gerry Power. 

Link below to Una Kealy's review for the Irish Theatre Magazine
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/Reviews/Current/Brighton