Interrogating John Morton

John’s been interrogating the cast for the week but today I’d my chance to corner the director himself and turn the tables on him to throw a few questions his way.

Describe your part or role in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist?

I play Inspector Bertozzo. He’s a fairly hapless, short tempered copper who tends to get the shit kicked out of him. A lot. (Ken’s note: There’s no word of a lie in that, I’ve actually nailed him in the head and connected some fantastic kicks in rehearsals. He is the director after all)

What’s been your favourite part of rehearsals?

Trying to maintain eye contact with David Thompson.

What’s the hardest thing about rehearsals?

Trying to maintain eye contact with David Thompson.
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What do you think of the Set Theatre?

I think it’s a beautiful venue and the audience are going to be very comfortable. But it’s Fort Knox like in it’s ability to enter or exit. Every day is like the opening titles from Get Smart.

How do you think the audience are going to respond to the play?

One part of me really hopes people get offended. But most of me wants them to laugh their arses off. As long as they’re not bored. So yeah, somewhere between throwing rotten veg and pissing the seats. A mess, basically.

Describe the play in 5 words.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist

How relevant is the play to Ireland at the moment?

Corrupt guards, insane people running the show, paedophile priests, ruthless journalists, the truth being taken out back and shot. Yup, once we get Jedward and floods in there we’ll be laughing.

What are you most looking forward to during the run of the show?

People’s reactions to David Thompson’s marathon performance and Ken McGuire and Alan Butler’s taches. Pretty hot shit all round if I do say so myself.

Nerves?

Without them I’d be nervous.

Finally, who would you most like to take into a police cell and beat the shit out of.

Thierry Henry. We’ll leave it there so.

Interrogating Sean Hackett

Sean Hackett previously appeared for us in Heart Shaped Vinyl and Cannibal! The Musical. He also plays Niall Tennyson in the webcom Vultures. But here, he answers questions.

1. What’s this Constable chap like?

Like a puppy dog, eager to please, woof woof!

2. Is there anything you’ve found particularly difficult in the rehearsal process?

These questions.

3. So what aspect of Accidental Death Of An Anarchist will really stick with people?

Definitely the singing.

4. And what’s your own favourite part to perform?

The beginning, the middle and the end.

5. What are your thoughts on the Set Theatre?

It looks very, very nice.

6. What will the audience think of all the madness?

Good things, I hope.

7. Describe the play in 5 words.

?????

8. Do you think the play is relevant to modern Ireland?

I learned a lot about what’s been going on in Ireland so I figure it must be.

9. What are you most looking forward to during the run of the show?

Honesty.

10. Nerves?

Oh, yes.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist opens this Wednesday December 2nd and runs until Sunday December 6th. Tickets can be picked up in Rollercoaster Records, the Set Theatre box office and right here!

7 Deadly Scenes by What’s On Tom?

I took a jaunt out to Thomastown last night to watch a night of short plays entitled 7 Deadly Scenes from Kilkenny’s newest theatre group What’s On Tom? (A nice anagram for Thomastown as I’ve just noticed)

I had a play in the mix myself so that saw me nicely comped by the folks at What’s On Tom? so I got to spend a night at the theatre and check out a whole bunch of new plays and actors.The Red Door Theatre at the Bridge Brook Arms was a fantastic small scale theatre and the folks there should be commended on the marvellous job they’ve done with it. A long yellow curtain (donated from an old cinema I was told) and a warm lighting scheme helped create a lovely theatre atmosphere. And it’s also got to be pointed out that the seats were very comfy indeed. You’d be surprised at how many theatre’s get that one wrong and do your derriere a complete disservice.

The plays themselves were a mixed bag of treats but they showed a great variety of writing and acting talent, which bodes very well for future productions from What’s On Tom? The Widow and The Bride by Hilary Gallagher was a short and frenetic start to proceedings. Gillian Grattan’s Bond riffing Waiting For Double O went down exceedingly well with some really fantastic comic performances in the processes, most notably from Eilis Ni Bhroithe. The next play was Alan Cliff’s adele_edwards@slander.com which has to be commended by the last minute addition to the cast of the writer himself, who had to fill in for an absent actor. It didn’t detract in any way from the piece which also boasted some really nice technical flourishes. My personal favourite was Hugh Cardiff’s The Murder Of My Mother, a richly dark comedy which boasted a great comic turn from our old mucker Niall Sheehy, he played Franco Begbie in our production of Trainspotting. He was fantastic in this play as a murderous mummy’s boy. Dermot Corrigan’s weird and wonderful Lungfish opened up the second half with some fine performances and a lot of laughs. Next up was Arnold Thomas Fanning’s Dumped which boasted some fine central performances from Orla Kelly and Ciaran Dunphy. And finally was my own play Tenterhooks, which was lovely to see up on the stage. Sterling work from director Andrew O’Leary and the leads, Lynsey Moran and Jack O’Leary.  And thanks to the folks at What’s On Tom? for choosing to put my play on, it was a real privilege.

So that was 7 Deadly Scenes, a full to the brim night of theatre in Thomastown. Having sold out all 3 performances weeks in advance I think it’s safe to say that there’s a demand there for theatre and What’s On Tom? are in a perfect position to satisfy it. I’m really looking forward to seeing some more works from them in 2010.

Interrogating Alan Butler

This is Alan’s first production for us. He took the time during rehearsals to take a grilling.

1. Tell us a bit about Inspector Pisani.

He’s a smooth talking, hard assed, son of a bitch!

2. What’s the best thing about working on a Dario Fo play.

Getting to do all of the Chaplin-esque slapstick.

3. What’s been the hardest thing about rehearsals so far?

Keeping a straight face.

4. What do you think is your favourite part of the show?

All of it, it’s class. Tell your friends!

5. What are you thoughts of the Set Theatre?

It’s gorgeous! It’s like a baby Carnegie Hall, and it’s great acting in a new space, it adds to the energy of the play.

6. How do you think the audience are going to take to the play?

Piss themselves laughing but hopefully have something to think about to.

7. Decribe the play in 5 words.

Crazy make up mad taches.

8. What are you most looking forward to?

Getting in front of a live audience, hopefully a full house!

9. Do you think the play is relevant to Irish society at the moment?

Yeah, the lads have done a great job at making the script completely relevant.

10. Nerves?

Nope!

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist opens this Wednesday, December 2nd and rund until Sunday December 6th. Tickets are available in the Set Teatre, Rollercoaster Records and on this website.

Interrogating Ken McGuire

Ken McGuire has produced and appeared in everything we’ve done. He does so much that we figured asking him a load of questions about this play would be no bother to him. Gwan the Ken.

Describe your part / role in Accidental Death Of An Anarchist?

Where do I begin? I’ve been shouting and roaring at people for the
last ten weeks, pretending to be some kind of angry policeman while
whipping the other actors into shape. Or is that you? Like other
productions I’m double-sided on ADOAA, wearing my producers hat up
until 6pm each evening which means organising everything that happens
behind the scenes on the production for the past few months, then
donning a gruff Irish accent to play the Superindendent, the senior of
the police players in our wee farce. The Super is a bit of a bastard,
no surprises there. He’s a great combination of roles I’ve been able
to play over the last few years – part nice guy, part sleaze, two
parts bastard, all rolled into one. He’s proud, he’s aggressive, he’s
weary of his situation but knows well that he’s screwed. Sure he’ll
try and shift the blame to anyone but himself, but where that takes
him you’ll have to see for yourself…

What’s been your favourite part of this production so far?

Favourite part? The endless eight-hour rehearsals that leave me a
broken shell of my former self.

What’s the hardest thing about rehearsals?

Hardest part? The endless eight-hour rehearsals that leave me a broken
shell of my former self. My it’s fun.

Is there a certain part of rehearsals that you like the most?

Judging by rehearsals and trying to get over the fact that we’ve been
“corpsing like bastards” of late, it looks like every part is my
favourite part. In fairness, that’s not a bad response. The overall
experience of the show and rehearsals thus far has been fantastic. The
challenges are there in droves and the action at parts is frantic but
if it’s keeping us smiling then it’s all good.

Set Theatre job, hey?

If we were (in terms of local companies) a Watergate-only theatre
company then I’d say straight away “Hell yeah, what the hell is
this!”. But we’ve lined up 13 actors in the keg store in Cleere’s,
we’ve had about the same hanging out in tiny darkened corners in The
Barn, and we’ve stepped out on stages in both, makeshift stages in
Rothe House and of course in the Watergate. If anything it will be
interesting to be in a new space. Having covered events there for the
Arts Festival this past summer and with my professional work I’ve
become quite familiar rather quickly with the setup there so I reckon
it’ll be fun moreso than weird. Five venues inside four years isn’t
too bad going!

This play cuts a lot of throats? How do you think the audience will take it?

I’m expecting political revolt. There’ll be uproar at the next council
meeting, the press will have a field day with this and medical card
campaigners will be patting us on the back. I’ve no idea in the
slightest how the audience will take it. Here’s hoping they see the
genuinely comic side of the production and go home having had their
sides split with laughter

Describe the play in 5 words.

Political satire at its finest.

How relevant is the play to Ireland at the moment?

Very. Seriously. Sure enough, we’re based in Italy, we’re playing
Italian characters, but when the gloves come off and the madman (in
the guise of a mirror being held up to present day society) lets rip,
people are going to see that it’s very, very relevant to the current
state of play in Ireland, whether this year, last year or over the
last decade or so.

Most looking forward to?

That pint on Wednesday night. I’ve steered clear of alcohol for pretty
much the run of rehearals so I’ll be looking for a victory sip on the
opening night. If I could go for said pint in full costume and makeup
I’d be happier still.

Nerves?

Ask me at about 7:29pm on Wednesday. It’s always something I’ve tried
to put to one side. If you let nerves get the better of you, you’re
done for. If we’re looking nervous on stage, it’s only because we’re
using our acting to make you think that we are.

Finally, who would you most like to take into a police cell and beat
the shit out of?

William Shakespeare. What a prick. It’s his own fault.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist opens on Wednesday December 2nd and runs until Sunday December 6th in the Set Theatre, John Street, Kilkenny. Tickets can be bought at the Set Theatre, Box Office, Rollercoaster Records and on www.devioustheatre.com

Interrogating David Thompson

David Thompson plays the lead role of the Madman in our production of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. He’s also played the lead role of Alferd Packer in 2007’s Cannibal! The Musical. Other work for Devious Theatre included Heart Shaped Vinyl and The War Of The Worlds. He also plays gentleman detective Dan McGrain in the web sitcom Vultures.

During rehearsals, he was given the following grilling:

1. Describe your part / role / character in the play.

Mad as a cow.

2. So what’s your favourite part of the play to perform?

Eating a banana.

3. What’s been the hardest part of rehearsals for you?

Getting to rehearsals.

4. Is there a particular bit that you think really speaks to people?

The bit with the Madman.

5. So, the Set Theatre. It’s pretty new and fancy. What’s it like? Is it weird to be in a brand new space?

…that’s two questions? The Set Theatre is weird and brand new. I love it!

6. Do an impression of an audience member after this play.

“OMG, they look sooo weird!!!”

7. Describe the play in 5 words.

The play is basically about…

8. What’s your own personal relationship with the Gardai like?

I was brought in to give a statement a while ago and they didn’t hit me once. Not once. Rossport is happening though, take notice.

9. What do you most hope to achieve with the 6 night run of this play?

Ah, seeing the worries, woes and realities of the audience disappear for an hour or two. Back to childhood with ye!

10. Nerves, eh?

No thanks. I’ve just eaten. (At Blueberry, mmm…)

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist opens Wednesday December 2nd and runs until Sunday December 6th. Tickets are available in the Set Theatre box office, Rollercoaster Records and online at www.devioustheatre.com

Final Week Rehearsals

It’s been nearly 10 weeks of rehearsal on Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, far longer than we’ve done on any production previously. But then again, no previous productions have required such physicality from the performers and demanded such a high standard of performance. It’s our smallest ever cast and our biggest amount of both text and physicality, so yup, this one’s been a marathon.

The physicality in the play is derived from commedia dell’arte, the improvisational and highly physical style of comedy theatre from the 16th century, a style that Fo used throughout his career. It is a style rooted firmly in the grotesque, in clowning and in caricature. And like commedia dell’arte, Fo’s work is rooted in mockery, impersonation and satire. We’ve worked hard at bringing it out in this text and the actors have done some remarkable work in terms of creating extremely heightened characters, a lot of which are lampoonsing certain figures in Irish life and draws inspiration from a lot of stereotypes in this country. It’s resulted in a lot of crazy, sweaty rehearsals where we’re corpsing like bastards but it’s going to be what will drive this play. To bring this style out is all the more difficult when the text contains you in so small a space (basically an office on the fourth floor) and then to let the wild Madman loose in it, is to throw a bunch of fireworks into a petrol factory. Utter madness aptly enough.

Definitely exhausting stuff. But it’s been extremely rewarding so far. All the performers have risen to the challenge and like the best examples of ensemble work, they are very fluid and spark off each other perfectly. We’re at the stage of rehearsals where the elements are in place but you can still see the joins. We’re not entirely there yet but we’re getting there.

This week is going to be an intense one. We’re working on refining a lot of the technical elements and making sure everything tightens up and hopefully our intentions will emerge crystal clear. One of our initial starting points with this play was old comedies. The silent movies of the 20’s and comedies of the 30’s are a big inspiration for us. As the forefathers of film comedy, they took that commedia style of theatre and put it before a camera. And we’re taking it back through them and putting it back on the stage. At least that’s our intention anyway. We’re trying to make it look like a silent comedy on stage and channel Chaplin, Keaton and the Marx Brothers. If we can get even a fraction of that skill level, then I’m going to be a very happy camper!

The masters we are serving here are Dario Fo and of course, the audience. It’s been played to please and like the best of Fo’s work, we hope it will keep the audience engaged, both by entertaining them but also illuminating the injustices in their countries, in their society, in their lives. Despite the heightened comedic style, this is a very political piece of theatre and we really want people to hear the anger, disenchantment and frustration that we’ve channeled into the play.

And if they don’t hear it? Well, we hope that’s because they’ve been laughing too hard.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist opens Wednesday December 2nd and runs until Sunday December 6th. Tickets can be bought from the Set Theatre box office, Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street, Kilkenny and by credit card here on his very website.

Watergate Productions Presents The Beauty Queen Of Leenane

Martin McDonagh’s instant classic and indeed, most famous play will take it’s bow in the Watergate Theatre tonight in a highly anticipated 6 night run from Watergate Productions.

Watergate Productions are Kilkenny’s oldest theatrical institution and compromise a group of actors and directors who have represented theatre here for over 30 years. And to see them tackling something as dark and bitterly funny as The Beauty Queen Of Leenane is a very exciting prospect indeed. The direction for the show is taken care of by the ever capable hands of Ger Cody and this play has been a pet project of his for quite some time.

The production has an absolutely stellar cast, headed up by Mary Cradock as the embittered old nag Mag Folan and Claire Henriques as her put upon daughter Maureen, the titular beauty queen. Support is ably provided by Brendan Corcoran as Pato and in his Watergate Productions debut Ross Costigan as his younger brother Ray.

Ross has appeared in nearly every one of our previous productions so it’s going to be great to see him in the midst of Kilkenny’s theatrical establishment, and especially in a play as iconic as The Beauty Queen Of Leenane.

This is a seriously hot ticket so it’s best to grab your tickets while you can. The production runs from tonight November 23rd until Sunday November 28th. Tickets can be booked at the Watergate Productions box office on 056 – 7761674.

Chasing The Madman

Here’s another promo picture from Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, this time playing up the influence of silent movies on our production with a picture that’s all a bit Keystone Kops.

It shows (from left to right) The Madman running away from the Superintendent, Inspector Pisani, Inspector Bertozzo, Constable and Maria Feletti. I guess I should point out that there’s actually nothing in the play like this photo but it is indicative of the wild goose chase the Madman leads the police on, so it’s not entirely without validity!

There’s a few more of these promo photos to come in the next week or so, along with a few other bits and pieces so please do keep an eye out.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist runs from December 2nd – 6th in Set Theatre, Kilkenny. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased in Rollercoaster Records, Set Theatre Box Office or on this very site.

Director’s Blog: Adapting The Text

It’s hard to believe that we’re nearly 2 months into production on Accidental Death Of An Anarchist and this is the first time I’ve gotten to write anything. So much for regular blogging. I’m kind of hoping to do another few of these in the next week or two just to give an insight into what we’ve been tinkering away at in the lab for the past few months.  Between the production for this, Shakespeare In Bits and all the pre-production for Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! it’s been a busy, busy time here in Devious towers.

I guess the main thing to talk about is the play itself. Those 53, battered, higlighted and scribbled pages of Dario Fo’s writing that lie on my desk are the reason we pursued this one. It’s always been one of my favourite plays and everyone in Devious had long harboured hopes to do it.

And with the opening of the Set Theatre, we figured the time was right. The venue itself is good for getting up close with an audience and the closer you can get, the more effective the tension and claustrophobia on the stage can be. In a bigger venue, we were afraid that the production would lose it’s impact.

But the main reason we decided to do this play now isn’t just because we had a venue that was suitable, but because it was absolutely the right time to do it. Which is also the reason why we’re doing two Dario Fo plays. This is the right time for Dario Fo plays. Everyone should be doing Dario Fo plays!

Dario Fo’s writings have consistently been tools that have poked and prodded corrupt institutions, not just in Italy, but all around the world. And the great man himself has encouraged the interpretation and adaptation of his work to suit the climate of whatever country you’re in. The Alan Cumming/Tim Supple version in 1990 took aim at the corruption in the British police around the time of the Birmingham Six and Guilford Four acquittals. Performances have taken place in communist China, Pinochet’s Chile, the former West Germany, Ceausescu’s Romania (three seperate companies were running productions in three seperate cities in 1983) and apartheid ridden South Africa. It’s a play that resonates anywhere there’s corruption and anywhere that citizens have been oppressed.

When it came to our version, myself Ken and Kevin sat down with the text to hammer out some ideas and get an idea of how it was going to work within the Irish milieu.  If we’d been doing this play 8 years ago it would have been perfect, but since then our Garda Siochana have shaped up (and stopped battering students) so we kinda felt that we might be stretching for a target.  So with the text, we brought the target more inline with the government and especially how they utilise the guards and the relationship between government and police force. And that’s where we hit our jackpot of material. With the Shell To Sea campaign still making the news consistently and little incidents where the guards have been used to go after government antagonisers (hello nudie Brian Cowen pictures) we’re confident we’ve got enough ammo. Not to mention the fact that our current minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern is on record for a whole bunch of homphobic comments he has yet to retract, and well, we’ve got plenty of material here for some sacred cow butchering political satire.

This is definitely a political farce but it’s also a broad comedy and in adapting it we’ve made sure that we wouldn’t lose the laughs amidst the satire. And indeed, vice versa, with another worry being losing sight of our targets as we tried to play up the funnys. Hopefully we’ve got a good mix of the two in here. We’ve kept the beautiful wordplay of Fo’s language and in some cases have added in new bits along those lines. Also, because of the injection of Irishness, we’ve given the text some of our own flavours and yes, maybe a slight hint of gombeenism on the part of some of our police characters. It’s interesting how natural lies and manipulations of the truth sound coming out of these characters when they have Irish accents. If anything, I’m aiming for the look and feel of a Marx Brothers comedy. With lashings of satire.  And a tad more Irishness.

So all in all, we’re hoping it works and we can enrage and enlight and humour in equal measure. Basically, we’re hoping Dario Fo would approve! Hopefully in the next few days I’ll get to write a bit about the rehearsals and some other aspects of the production. We’re 2 weeks off opening so god knows it’s going to go as quick as the past 2 months have. But hey, that’s the magic of theatre, it’s all about the moment!

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist runs from December 2nd – 6th in the Set Theatre, John Street, Kilkenny. Tickets are currently onsale and can be bought in Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street, Set Theatre, John Street or with a handy click of the icon at the top of this page.

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