Devious Theatre Company, Kilkenny took another positive step towards recognition as a professional theatre company with a stunning production at Cleere’s Theatre, of the controversial Bash: Latterday Plays by Neil Labute. This is a play, because of the subject matter of its three sections caused the author to be excommunicated from the Church of the Latterday Saints. These plays are meant to evoke revulsion and admiration and this company repelled me with the presentation of evil in a cruel, indifferent world and impressed me with strong, searing acting in a small intimate space, where you had to engage with the horror onstage or look away.

Based loosely on aspects of the cruelty and inhumanity contained in Greek theatre, these three pieces, two monologues and a dialogue took more ability than just nerve to do something shocking and controversial.

In Iphigenia in Orem, John Morton confronts his audience with a confessional admission that he stood back and allowed his baby, an infant, to smother beneath a duvet or comforter as American’s say. His explanation of this horrible act had a chilling rationality to it and it was a feat of acting and directing by Ken McGuire.

McGuire partnered Amy Dunne in A Gaggle Of Saints where he describes how his friends go up to the city for a bash or party, follow a gay man and beat him to death, steal his ring and present it to his fiancé, Dunne. The counterpoint of their cross purpose dialogue is a wonderful testament to fine acting and spot on direction from Annette O’Shea.

John Morton directed the final piece, Medea Redux, where a tearful O’Shea recalls being seduced by a teacher and giving birth to a fine baby boy. In an unspeakable act of revenge and cruelty she kills the son to make a point to the smug teacher who rejected her.

This was a difficult performance and Annette O’Shea riveted the audience with an awesome performance where I just could not avert my eyes and such was the shock at the heart of this play that I found it hard to applaud at the end.

Why the Arts Council has not granted-aided this company to become a professional theatre is an indictment of the reductive trend many subsidized organizations are pursuing with difficult diligence.

Bash ran from October 17th – 22nd 2011 in Cleeres Theatre, Kilkenny.

These comments have been gathered from our Facebook profile, bash: latterday plays events page and comments left to actors within the show. If you’ve been to see the show and want to pass a comment, leave it in the box below, head over to Devious Theatre on Facebook or drop an email to info@devioustheatre.com.

The Audience on bash:latterday plays

“Yet again Devious Theatre prove themselves as an amazingly talented group…if you get a chance over the coming week check out their most recent production,three horror stories of everyday evil….BASH- LATTERDAY PLAYS by Neil Labute.”

“excellent show you guys (ha ha!!) really enjoyed it! I’ll be sleeping with the light on, scary!”

“I’m terrified yet kinda satisfied at the same time? Well done, everyone, that completely blew me away!”

“All I can say is wow… Well done!”

“Immensely powerful performance!! Really well done!”

“Devious Theatre’s ‘Bash’ is the Feel Bad Hit of the Winter which you have to see.”

“Awesome performances, deeply disturbing content …”

“Thanks to bash: latterday plays, I will be checking on my kids every 5 minutes tonight, just to see if they’re still alive… What an amazing show”

“Amazing work. I felt revulsion and admiration…”

“You will leave Bash groping, overwhelmed and with the need to experience the better side of humanity”

“Devious theatres latest production in cleeres is incredible. Amazing sustained performances. We are so lucky in this small city to have such talent.”

Getting Tickets

If these comments do anything for you then don’t wait around to get tickets. Online sales for tonight (Wednesday) have stopped so it’s tickets at the venue only (you can ring and reserve on 056 7762573). Tickets are available online for Thursday, Friday and Saturday but in typical fashion now as with our previous shows, it looks like we’ll have to suspend online ticket sales early as demand in the venue, including post-show ticket sales for subsequent nights has been great.

Thanks so much to all who have come out in the past two nights, we’ve still got four performances to go and we’re looking forward to each and every one of them.

This one is ticking a few boxes for me. First off, it allows us to mark bash off our list of things to do in the theatre. It puts me into my first short play (outside of sketch shows or scene based shows, everything I’ve done in the last fifteen years has been feature-length). I’ll save my third box for the performance week, see if you can figure it out. And, interestingly enough, it marks the ten year anniversary of myself and Amy Dunne appearing as a couple on stage. Take that, Kilkenny history boffins. Of course, the last time we shared spoken roles together, she put me in my place by pulling a gun on me so we’ll see what happens next week.

Genuinely though, I’m loving exploring bash, and in particular, a gaggle of saints. With four of us working in close quarters on the three pieces, I don’t think I can recall a time in the past five years with the company that we’ve dissected a script so much – whatever about accents or physicality but actually trying to delve into the minds of the characters, dig out their back story from the text, really get under their skin. While the performances are quite stationary, LaBute has created some remarkable characters within each text which gives us a lot to work with.

Given the nature of the piece, the rehearsal process has been thrown on its head. I’m sick of the sound of my own voice, or at least sick of the voice that was recorded three weeks ago. I’ve been listening back to a recording myself and Amy did of the piece and I guess I sounded to an American what Americans sound to Irish people when trying an Irish accent. But, thankfully, it’s come on in the past few weeks.

What has been tough to chew at times is the script in itself. Not for the amount of content – we’re getting through that – or the speed or the cues, but the actual subject matter itself. In a blog post last week, John summed it up perfectly in saying

“We want it to shock. We want it to horrify people. And for the first time since we’ve been producing shows, we want people to feel bad about laughing.”

That’s just it. Each performance contains genuinely shocking material. So read about it, you see it in film or on TV but with each production, it’s laid bare in front of you – one on one with the actors in a small room, and you need to face it. That delivery, that execution as an actor, has been the real testing point. Finding that point means, I think, you’ve finally gotten to the heart of the character.

But it’s a test that’s been welcomed and once the show is done I’ll tick the box that says “test passed”. Or something cheesy like that.

On a closing note, the last time I wore a tuxedo for The Devious Theatre Company, we won a PPI Radio Award so the omens are good for the week ahead.

See you at the bash…

Ken

Ken McGuire performs a gaggle of saints with Amy Dunne in bash: latterday plays by Neil LaBute from October 17th – 22nd in Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny. Buy tickets online here.

We’re massive fans of the work of Neil LaBute and have been waiting many years to stage one of his plays in Kilkenny. We are delighted to finally do so when bash runs in the intimate confines of Cleere’s Theatre from October 17th – 22nd.

bash was first performed in 1999. It became quickly renowned for its shocking and unflinching portrayals of everyday evil with the New York Times calling it ‘insistently brutal’. Like much of LaBute’s work, it exposes the dark and sinister undercurrents of clean cut middle American life. The play was considered so shocking at the time that LaBute was disfellowshipped by the Church Of Latter Day Saints, of whom the characters in bash are members.

The play consists of 3 stories with a loose basis on Greek mythology, transposed to modern America. Delivered in monologues that are conversational, breezy, natural and ultimately gutwrenching, bash examines the horrific lengths that human beings go to in order to stay in control of their lives.

In iphigenia in orem a young utah businessman recounts a particularly chilling confession to a stranger in a Las Vegas hotel room. It will be performed by John Morton and directed by Ken McGuire.

a gaggle of saints sees a young couple document the violent events of a romantic weekend away in New York. It will be performed by Amy Dunne and Ken McGuire and directed by Annette O’Shea.

In medea redux a young woman tells the ultimately tragic tale about a romance with her high school teacher when she was a teenager. It will be performed by Annette O’Shea and directed by John Morton.

Neil LaBute’s plays include The Shape Of Things, The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig, Wrecks and reasons to be pretty. His film work includes In The Company Of Men, Your Friends And Neighbours, Nurse Betty and Possession.

Neil LaBute’s bash: latterday plays runs in Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny from October 17th – 22nd at 8pm nightly. Bookings can be made on 056 – 7762573. Tickets are €12 and are available to buy online now (subject to booking fee).

For us, it was curtains up to a great audience on Thursday evening for a 6pm performance to very warm, generous and busy audience that contained two or three familiar faces from home. But familiar faces is not totally what we’re after for a festival run, it’s all about the new faces, the new contacts, the new relationships established in a place like this.

When we to Scratcher to Theatre Machine earlier the year it was very much bring show in, perform show, empty venue, head for home or post show drinks to talk things out. There’s almost a familial atmosphere here with each company supporting each others works, performing to fellow performers, everyone providing feedback, and over the four days there’s an awful lot of it to be had.

So for us, the Smitten audience was a great test for the show itself. When we perform it in Kilkenny first in 2008, we were already established locally, were creating a particular brand of humour that had already been tested across four or five shows at a local level. Bringing that brand of humour to a new location and a new audience on Thursday evening showed that when we get to open in Kilkenny next week, home audiences are in for a real treat.

The laughs were there, along with the disgust, the sadness, the singing, the dancing, and it all seemed to go down very well. Feedback that we’ve received thus far has been extremely encouraging and it will all factor in to the Kilkenny performance. And while the audience enjoyed the show, we as a company very much enjoyed the show and we’ve been lapping up all we can of Solstice thus.

Half have returned home but those of us still in Cork have taken in shows like Red Shoes and Makeshift Ensembles comedically energetic Osteoporosis last night. As day 3 gets warm up here in the Old Fás Building on Sullivan’s Quay we’re looking ahead to a day of theatre and talk, along with a chance to catch up on some shows we missed out on at Theatre Machine in February.

The Solstice programme wraps tomorrow but there’s still a load of shows to catch before Sunday night along with the installation and exhibition pieces in the visual arts space. Take a look at SolsticeCork.com to see what awaits!

Shifting: Kissing (Kilkenny slang)

The Kissing installment was written be Eleanor Walsh (no nickname yet) who is working with us on Shifting as assistant director. The voice of the girl is played by Sorcha O’Boyle, who previously worked with us on Scratcher creating the mighty props used in the show. This third installment recalls memories of a young girl’s first kiss in Kilkenny, and everything that went along with it. Sometimes, those fairytale moments do happen in life.

We’ll bring you the interview from KCLR in the next day or so, but we would like to thank the station for facilitating our few days of audio shorts and Edwina for hosting them and the cast on her afternoon show. Click play below to hear the third and final installment or check out Shifting: Exchange and Shifting: To Transfer.

Shifting: Kissing (Kilkenny Slang) by Devious Theatre

Tickets for the Monday night performance of Shifting are all sold out with Friday and Saturday joining Monday on the “tickets for that show are as rare as hens’ teeth” list. But don’t despair, you can still book tickets for Tuesday through Friday at ]]> http://devioustheatre.com/shifting-kissing-kilkenny-slang-20110416/feed/ 0 http://devioustheatre.com/shifting-to-transfer-20110415/ http://devioustheatre.com/shifting-to-transfer-20110415/#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2011 11:12:08 +0000 Ken McGuire http://devioustheatre.com/?p=1907 Continue reading]]>

The second in our audio installments for Shifting has landed, this time looking at the definitions of shifting as meaning to transfer.

Shifting: To transfer from one place to another

This sequence was written by and is voiced by John Kennedy and with thanks to KCLR it went to air yesterday on the Edwina Grace show. You can catch the final installment of the trilogy by tuning into KCLR96FM today just after 5pm when Edwina will be joined on air by some of the cast of the show.

If you didn’t know it already, John Kennedy is also the reason the cast are saying the lines they say on stage, him being a writer and all. With wisdom beyond his years, John junior has been working with John senior (Morton) since January as a junior writer-in-residence to develop the script for Shifting. This is his first full-length script for stage and we’re delighted by be able to give it a home and a debut.

If you like what you hear in the audio pieces below, don’t forget that tickets for Shifting are still available. Saturday is slim on the ground, Monday is now completely sold out (waiting list only, sorry students!) but you may be able to get your hands on some mid week tickets here or by calling in to the Arts Office at 76 John Street, Kilkenny.

Press play below to get started.

Shifting: To Transfer by Devious Theatre

These shorts are also going to air on KCLR 96FM’s Edwina Grace Show (with today’s short going to air a short while ago, around 5:30pm). Today, tomorrow and Friday after the pieces go to air we’ll be bringing you the audio shorts here on the blog and over on SoundCloud.

This first piece, Exchange, was written by Rhian Gibson. Rhian makes her debut performance with us for Shifting, playing the role of Hillary. The piece is voiced by Stephanie Cassin and was produced by Ken McGuire.

Shifting: Exchange by Devious Theatre

The development of the radio pieces, apart from being produced to promote the show, was to explore the definition of the word shifting. Long recognised as one of Kilkenny’s favourite terms for kissing / meeting / facing / tonguing / sconing, the word does have several meanings, each very different to the other. For the pieces, we gave the writers three different defintions and let their pens run wild. They had to keep it local, keep it within their age range but outside of that, the pieces very much are of their own making.

Click play above and introduce yourself to the world of Shifting. Grab yourself a ticket online, check out the Facebook event and hopefully we’ll see you at the Arts Office between Monday and Saturday coming. By the by, we’re also open on Good Friday. Bring some wine, knock yourself out, have the craic with some good quality theatre.

THIS reviewer has been lucky enough to witness the birth of Ireland’s three finest contemporary playwrights – Martin McDonagh in Galway, Enda Walsh in Cork and, not so long ago, John Morton in Kilkenny.

Now John has surpassed his first offerings with the most important work to emerge about the recession in any medium. Recalling cinema more than theatre it tells the story of a dole queue becoming a group of revolutionaries when one of their number pulls a gun after not having their claim processed.

This is not worthy stuff however. Drawing from the worlds of animation and pop culture, ‘Ren and Stimpy’ and the ‘Animaniacs’ are recalled as much as Tarantino and ‘Scott Pilgrim’ this is as zany as it is angry. An energetic sideswipe at the tortuous process that grinds people down into cogs for a broken machine it never for a second fails to entertain.

What particularly struck home was the frustration of disparate groups of people in our society and the way the divide and conquer approach of capitalism has turned worker against the unemployed. The characterization of these different types is finely drawn – the student, the builder, the activist, the career girl, the slacker and the leader are all here but never feel schematic or cliched.

The dialogue, as with Morton’s other work, is what will be buzzing in your mind as you leave. Relying both on colloquialisms and profanity he gets his political points across by making them easier to swallow with witty gags. His finely tuned ear for dialogue and ease with tonal shifts are what sets him apart from any of his contemporaries – a truly original and modern voice.

The performances are uniformly excellent- Ken McGuire impresses as usual as the macho builder who is cheating the system and Ross Costigan cast against type as the nerdy gay lad really makes it his own.

Dave Thompson is tailor made for his lovable loser role while John Morton himself superbly conveys the frustration of a recently unemployed man.

However the highest accolades must go to the female cast. Amy Dunne surpasses herself as the left-wing heart of the play and Annette O’Shea really stands out as the college graduate who is betrayed by our times. Alan Butler makes up their number in the multiple parts of authority from guard to dole official as well as sporting a lovely wig at one stage.

The blocking and lighting must be given special praise too as this work is as inventive as it is passionate. Every device from strobe flashes to confronting the audience directly is employed to keep your attention for every beat of the drama. The clever way that a real life dole office is recreated in the Arts Office completely works and never feels forced as many site-specific plays can.

This is not only a record of our times and a call to arms but a brilliantly realized piece of theatre. Once again this group manage to attract every type of audience member from the cool kids who prefer music and films to the recently unemployed spending the last of their dole to see their lives reflected. The madcap world of Ireland 2011 is shown in ‘Scratcher’,which crosses Pat McCabe with ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ for a generation defining work.

Photo by Pat Moore.

Getting your hands on tickets is easy. You can

• Click the tickets link from the menu above.
• Visit http://tickets.devioustheatre.com.
• Visit http://scratcher.eventbrite.com

As with Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! we’re offering our online tickets through EventBrite who, for the past two shows, have made everything really easy for us. You can pay for your tickets and print them off the web directly and bring them along with you on the night.

Online tickets are priced €12 and carry a booking charge of €1.05 per ticket. As we’ve just announced the ticket details, we’ve also got a special offer for you as well. When the physical tickets go on sale at Kilkenny Arts Office this coming week, they’ll also be on sale for €12, with no booking fee.

So, until Tuesday we’ve got an online offer for you. Use the coupon code ‘booking105‘ and you’ll get 10% off per ticket when you buy online, effectively saving you the booking fee and a few cent extra on the cost of a full price ticket. After Tuesday, the online tickets will be back at €12 plus booking fee.

Tickets are very limited. Unlike previous shows where we’ve been lucky enough to host up to and over 200 people a night, we’re capping tickets at a max of 70 per night.

Scratcher opens in Kilkenny at No 76 John Street on Tuesday 22nd, running until Saturday 26th. Keep an eye on the blog after the weekend for details on how and when you can pick up physical tickets.

Myself (Ken) and John are on the ground again during this year’s Kilkenny Arts Festival and we’ll be throwing a Devious Theatre eye over the performances on offer between August 6th and 15th. John had a look at what the strand offers already but I had the chance to catch up with curator Tom Creed in Dublin recently for more of an insight into this year’s theatre and dance program. Give it a watch.

John wrote about the upcoming Dreamstuff 10 programme, the big one-night-only show in September featuring a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For the ex-dreamstuff and now Devious heads among us, it was the first taste of Shakespeare for the group and so it holds a place in our wee hearts. It also seems to be a popular choice at the moment with a touring production having hit Ballykeefe Amphitheatre in Kilkenny last week and another touring production (different company) hitting Set Theatre in Kilkenny this weekend.

I had a chat with director Ailish Leavy on the phone yesterday who is looking to spread the word about their pending performance in Kilkenny, so spread the word we will. And let it be known too to other theatre companies that we can do this kind of thing for you if you find yourself treading the boards in the Marble City.

So it happens then that the Sycamore Street Theatre Company are peforming William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Set Theatre on John Street this coming Saturday night. It’s nice to see some more theatre going back into the space, our own troupe having taken up residency in Set for our productions of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist (December 200) and Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! (March 2010).

If you want the full rundown on the show (if you’ve never heard of it previously), check out the details here.

Sycamore Street Theatre Company was founded in 2009 by Eoin Langford, Ailish Leavy, Julie Liston, Jennifer O’Neill and Suzanne McLoughlin. You can also find them on Facebook.

Most importantly thought, their production is on this Saturday night, it’s in Set, tickets are €20/€15 and can be booked by phoning Langton’s on 056-7765133. Online booking is available for the remainder of the Midsummer Night’s Dream tour which kicks off proper this Thursday night at the Mount Wolseley Hotel in Tullow, Co. Carlow, performance starting at 8pm. For more on the company you can contact 087-9034164 or 087-1260590.

Kilkenny County Council Arts Office in partnership with the Drama League of Ireland is offering a week long Summer School workshop to one practitioner domiciled in Kilkenny.

The aim of the Bursary is to promote and foster all aspects of amateur drama in Kilkenny, both acting and emerging amateur drama practitioners, in giving them an opportunity to work intensively on a drama course alongside others in an idyllic setting at the University of Limerick campus.

The Drama League of Ireland Summer School will facilitate participant’s development while furthering their knowledge and experience in dealing with other professionals involved in the drama world.

Closing date for receipt of completed applications for both Bursaries is no later than 4pm on Friday 7th May 2010.

For further details and application forms regarding all of the above please contact: Niamh Finn, Arts Administrator, Kilkenny County Council Arts Office, No. 76, John Street, Kilkenny. T: 056 779 4138 E: niamh.finn@kilkennycoco.ie

Application forms can also be downloaded from www.artlinks.ie (News Section) / www.kilkennycoco.ie/services/arts

Following four sell-out National tours from 2007 to 2009, Life Shop till you Drop! will start its fifth nationwide tour in April 2010.

Life Shop till you Drop! is the Sassy Girl’s Self-Help Solution.

Ailish McGovern is an unfulfilled Recruitment Consultant. For Ailish life would be perfect if she had a marriage proposal, a glamorous job and most importantly won Irish Tatler Woman of the Year. And so she selects 2009 as the year in which she will transform her life, by applying all of the instructions and mantras of self-help gurus.

Join Ailish, as she goes speed dating, feng shui’s her 100% mortgaged apartment and targets the perfect boyfriend, using the New York manual ‘Your soul mate is out there and missing you.’ Next on her hit list is taking over her boss’ job using ‘The work secrets only successful people know!’

However it seems that no self-help book that she has studied, teaches that pride comes before a fall. A cautionary tale, or more likely, a wickedly fun spoof on our love of going life shopping.

Life Shop till you Drop begun life in January 2007 in Bewleys Café Theatre Dublin. Thus far it has played four National Tours, over 100 performances and enjoyed successful tours to Abu Dhabi, the Cork
Midsummer Festival, Belfast’s Out to Lunch Festival, Dun Laoghaire’s Pavilion Theatre, The Belltable Arts Centre Limerick, The Helix DCU, Draoicht Blanchardstown, The Civic Theatre Tallaght, Galway, Navan, Roscommon, Wexford, Virginia, Carrick on Shannon, Drogheda, Dundalk, Longford, Tipperary, Birr, Greystones, Tinahely, Monaghan and Naas. It will tour Ireland on a fifth National Tour from April 2010.

Tickets for Life Shop Till You Drop can be booked at Set Theatre / Langtons by phoning 056-7765133. Doors open 8pm and tickets are priced €13. Check the Wonder

The following review appears in The Munster Express, by Liam Murphy. Published on Thursday, March 25th.

I don’t really know how The Devious Theatre Company in Kilkenny can produce such consistent high quality and exciting theatre events time after time, without significant funding and still offer seats at the lowest prices. But they do and they continue not only to impress but amaze with sure fire theatre that carries no baggage and much hard work linked to admirable ambition.

A blisteringly funny and scathing production of Daro Fo’s seventies Italian social farce Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! At the Set Theatre in Langton’s was a tour de force, a tour de farce and a gobsmacking energetic production with five excellent actors, an innovative director, some excellent costumes, a clever set and a technical team to impress.

Devious brought this social comedy right up to date with a scathing slap at current Irish problems and yet maintained the framework and subversive intent of the author Dario Fo.

The pace never flagged to unfold a fast action scenario that when prices went up, housewives took action and began mass shoplifting. When transport prices increased workers brought the system to a halt and this mayhem found expression in a marital comedy where two wives steal all around them and conceal their swag under their coats and in every space they can find in small utilitarian flats.

A police raid forces the women to convince an impressionable policeman that Margherita is pregnant and in short time the crazy husbands who spout anti-Communist guff arrive home to break-neck craziness.

This was excellent ensemble playing with lots of modern comedic techniques mixed with commedia Del arte and cinematic references.

Angela Barrett and Hazel Fahy carried the plot along as the two wives and Ken McGuire was splendid as the bewildered Giovanni with a blinder of a performance from Ross Costigan as Luigi with a rock and roll hairstyle like a Grease quiff.

David Thompson once impressed hugely as at least four characters in a master class of physical theatre and timing. John Morton was an inspirational director and Lucy McKenna’s costume design was a wonderful feature of this production.

Check the review here on Munster-Express.ie (tell them what you think!)

The following appears in this week’s Kilkenny People (Section 2, page 30, week ending Friday March 19th).

There is a famous scene from an episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy and Ethel go to work on an assembly line in a candy factory. Caught off guard by an ever-faster conveyor belt from which they are supposed to be wrapping chocolates, the overwhelmed pair soon resort to stuffing their mouths, their blouses and their hats – anything to get them out of this tight spot. The laughs pile up as well, as the situation becomes more and more outrageous.

This was precisely the 1950s sitcom spirit captured by the Devious Theatre Company’s production of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! in the Set Theatre from Wednesday to Sunday of last week. In this case, it was shopping that piled up, followed by white lies and tall tales that stretched and stretched and stretched…

It all begins with an innocent trip to the supermarket by Antonia (Angela Barrett), who joins a group of women revolting against rising prices by paying half-nothing, or nothing at all, for the products. Arriving home, however, she realised that her husband Giovanni (Ken McGuire) “would rather starve to death than eat stolen food”. So she convinces her friend Margherita (Hazel Fahy) to hide some of the produce under her jacket – a fine idea, except that it makes her appear heavily pregnant, much to the surprise of her husband Luigi (Ross Costigan). The long arm of the law (a Sergeant and an Inspector played by David Thompson, who quadruples as an Undertaker and an Old Man) then sets out to catch the culprits across the city of Milan.

“It’s not a story, it’s an epic”, Antonia says at the outset, a promise that the bright-hued production lived up to through out.

Devious Theatre is known for its impeccable attention to detail, from costumes and sets to programmes and promotions, and in this case every exaggerated gesture, every mirrored movement, every raised eyebrow, every pregnant moan was expertly executed, so that by the time the ‘pregnant’ Margherita and Antonia are lying on the floor, struggling in turns – and in vain – to sit upright with their large ‘bellies’, you’d feel you should be ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing) along with them.

The idea of the play is that people should stand up and do things for themselves instead of waiting for someone else to lead the way – which is exactly what Devious Theatre has always done.

-

Our thanks to Tess Felder for the words.

While we gather our thoughts, write the cheques and count up the bruises from last week’s five-night run of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!, we’ll direct you over to our Flickr account where we’ve just added a host of new photos from the show.

The photos were taken either on the Friday or Saturday night of the production and appear courtesy of Pat Moore (Kilkenny Advertiser / Kilkenny Alive).

And while we’re here, sure Happy St. Patrick’s day to everyone

Go check out the photos.

The curtain comes down tonight on Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! The hard thing about local theatre is that you pour your heart and soul into the production and must come to a close after five nights. Sure enough, we’d be delighted to go on another week or more, or take the production on the road, but for the moment anyway, tonight is the final night of performance for our first major production of 2010.

It’s been a fantastic week thus far with some great audience nights, plenty of laughs, cheeky adlibs, high energy deliveries and loads more besides.

When all is done and dusted after tonight’s performance, we’ll also have drawn our Dario Fo Season to a close. What started with Accidental Death Of An Anarchist and finishes with Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! has kept the Devious committee members on their collective toes for the past seven months. It’s been a fantastic learning experience, a fantastic development experience but most importantly, it’s been an absolutely fantastic performance experience that we’ve been able to share with audience in Kilkenny across December and March.

So for one final night, we invite you to join us at Set Theatre on John Street in Kilkenny from 7:30pm for the final performance of Dario Fo’s Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!

The online ticket sales have closed but some tickets will be made available at the venue. To reserve in advance (up to 7pm) you can contact us on the back stage phone at 086-1048191.

If you’ve purchased tickets for Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! online, don’t forget to bring them with you on the night! Everyone who has purchased tickets online for the current run of Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! will have been emailed PDF versions of their tickets including their name, details, and a wee barcode to scan your tickets. While we can check the online reservation system there on the night, we do ask that you bring the printed versions of your tickets with you to the venue in order to ensure quick entry.

While it’s nice and early, you can still get tickets for tonight’s performance before online sales close. Tickets are also available online (we hold a certain number back for online sales) for Saturday and Sunday and can be purchased via PayPal or credit card from our secure online ticket sales area.

OPENING NIGHT for the show has come and gone and at time of writing we’ve got Steven sweeping the stage, Angela being tended to by Louise (makeup), the cast are in the green room costuming up and I (Ken) get to sit in the theatre and reflect on last night’s performance, with just over two hours to go to tonight’s.

So how did it go? From an actor’s perspective it went very well. The reactions from the audience were nothing short of fantastic (and thank you all to those who were at last night’s show). From the opening of the first act through flying doors, flying mustaches, millet soup, burst bags of pasta, exploding clocks and all the way to the rousing conclusion of the show, we couldn’t have asked for a better opening and, looking back on last night, I don’t think we could have anticipated it either.

Taking off the acting hat and switching on the producer’s hat, it was great to see last night take to the stage, then take off altogether. Front of house, back stage, makeup, costumes, sound, lights and more, everyone is packing their A-game for the week and that’s what we’re looking to deliver on all fronts.

The show has indeed opened, no blood this time (Accidental Death of an Anarchist did genuinely see glass smash and blood spill on the opening night) and we’ve got four more to go.

This is our first major production for 2010 and the conclusion of our Dario Fo season of works so we’d love to have you along. There are tickets available for each night (though by the sounds of things if you’re looking for tickets on Friday or Saturday, advance demand is quite high) and they can be booked by calling 056-7765133 (Langtons), dropping into Rollercoaster Records on Kieran Street in Kilkenny or you can order and print your tickets online here.

I mentioned on my own blog earlier that there is indeed free wifi available in Set Theatre so if you’re tweeting during the show or throwing anything out online, why not use the #cpwp tag to keep track of everything?

Note: For security purposes we’ve replaced the name of our makeup artist with “Louise”. Errr… yeah.