7 Pictures For 7 Years

May

2013

We are 7 years old today.

No sign of the 7 year itch though. This week we’ve been getting excited about new works in progress from John Doran & Kevin Mooney, Adrian Kavanagh and John Kennedy. Plus we’ve locked down the team for our next play this year. The future is still bright. We can see it all so clearly now… just like this:

Here are 7 (mostly) new pictures which show us (mostly) growing up over the past 7 years:

2006 – Baton Rouge

2007 – The Master Of Green Screen

2008 – Jailbait

2009 – Sharp Dressed Men

2010 – That’s Not David Thompson

2011 – The Guardian Angel Of Set Building

2012 – Living In The New HQ

2013 – Being Devious

Thanks to everyone who supports and still asks us what we’re doing next.

Dream Sequence

May

2013

We’re celebrating the arrival of summer by releasing some video of our summer set production of Smitten by John Morton. The play itself takes place over a rain sodden summer in Kilkenny so we earnestly hope we can avoid another miserable summer this year. But considering our 2008 and 2011 summer productions of Smitten took place during some miserably rainy summers, we’ve already given up hope. On May 1st.

This is the first video we’ve released from the romantic semi musical comedy and it shows off one of the many song and/or dance interludes from the play. This one, from the 2011 production, is a homage to the ‘All I Do Is Dream Of You’ sequence from Singing In The Rain with nowhere near the amount of co-ordination of Debbie Reynolds and her chums. Have a look!

Smitten was produced as part of our In The Future When All’s Well residency in Kilkenny Arts Office in 2011. It was directed by Angela Barrett and John Morton with choreography from Gemma Grant.

Smitten first opened in Cork on June 16th 2011 at Solstice as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. It then marked the conclusion of Devious Theatre’s Kilkenny Arts Office residency when it played No. 76 John Street from June 26th — July 2nd.

Playing Dead

Apr

16,

2013

At this stage, we’ve near exhausted the archive of material from last years Irish stage premiere of Night Of The Living Dead but there’s one more piece that still hasn’t been exhumed.

We had a camera at production meetings, rehearsals, poster shoots and for the kick off of production too. It’s all resulted in Playing Dead, a behind the scenes featurette on the show with contributions from some of our cast and crew and a look at all the hard, bloody graft that went into the first ever Irish production of Romero’s classic horror. We’ve already released a short video of the show itself but this should give a good indication of the mess that went on behind the scenes. Enjoy!

Thanks to Alan Slattery and Darragh Byrne for shooting this and to Event Media for putting it together. For more on our production of Night Of The Living Dead, check out NightOfTheLivingDead.ie

KoHL

Apr

2013

Kilkenny Youth Theatre have a very exciting production lined up for this month, especially if you’re a film noir fan or a general aficionado of booze, broads, bullets and brawls. And we are. So we’re going. And we think you should too.

Their main production for 2013 is a new piece of theatre entitled KoHL, devised by Droichead Youth Theatre, written by Sharon Cromwell. It is part of NAYD’s New Stage script programme which this year also includes Don’t Shoot The Messenger, written by our own John Morton and devised with Kilkenny Youth Theatre. We saw a preview version of the play during the New Stage launch in Axis, Ballymun last December and even at that point the cast had nailed the style of a classic noir with lashings of humour and mystery to boot. It made us damn jealous that we never got to play with this type of material in our youth theatre days. Damn jealous. So yes, we already know it’s good. Damn good.

The synopsis for KoHL is thus:

Prohibition is in full swing – booze, broads, bullets and brawls. Max Cole is looking for a case, Mia Swan is looking for her sister, their paths cross and we enter the underbelly of Prohibition New York. KYT’s production will celebrate all that is Film Noir: the femme fatale, the private eye, the newshound, the gangsters and the molls. Throw in the spirits of a few dead dancers and you have a play that sizzles with power, melodrama and ‘a whole heap o’ trouble’.

The cast includes some of Kilkenny’s best and brightest upcoming thesps. The aforementioned Mia Swan is played by Niamh Kennedy who made her debut with us playing the part of Karen Cooper in last years Night Of The Living Dead. It also features Eleanor Walsh who worked on our production of Shifting as assistant director. And there’s a whole other bunch of talented young actors who we will also potentially steal in the coming years. These include: Caoimhe Brennan, Jean O’Driscoll, Eimear Walsh, Gemma Long, Kevin Brennan, Brónagh Kennedy, Sarah Kent, Mary Whitty, Jack Eustace, Orla McGovern, Niamh Cusack, Éanna Prendergast-Doyle, Shaun Meighan and Robert Galster. The show is directed by Anna Galligan who did another amazing job last year with KYT’s fantastic production of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. So please, get your tickets for this one. It’s going to be a brilliant show and all eyes should be on the future of theatre in Kilkenny.

The show takes place in The Barn at Barnstorm Theatre Company, Church Lane, Kilkenny and tickets are priced €10 with an €8 concession. Bookings can be made at Barnstorm on 056 7751266 or by emailing anna@barnstorm.ie

March Fringe Fuse

Mar

24,

2013

A couple of Devious heads will be presenting a rehearsed reading of a work in progress tomorrow night at March Fringe Fuse. This is the third installment of Dublin Fringe Festival’s new monthly scratch night which is described as

‘a brand spanking new monthly scratch night where works of no longer than twenty minutes will be tested out in front of an audience in FRINGE LAB on the last Monday of every month.

And that’s it in a nutshell. Some of our team are looking forward to presenting an extract of a new play by John Morton entitled War Of Attrition. The play was initially developed by John and Angela Barrett during In The Future When All’s Well in 2011 and was presented as a rehearsed reading as part of Play On at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2012. The play itself is described as a ‘dark comedic thriller about a nasty game of one-upmanship that descends into a relentless war.’ Tomorrow night will see John Doran, John Morton, Roseanna Purcell and Niamh Moroney present part of the in development piece and we’re very excited about getting to test out some new material as part of Fringe Fuse. We attended February Fringe Fuse which was great fun and a really relaxed, informal way of seeing new theatre work in development and being able to have lovely chats about it.

Also presented on the night is ‘HOME inside the Body’ the current dance & theatre solo project by Csilla Nagy / Cipolla Collectiva LIVE ART and ‘The King’s Feet’ by
Louise Melinn and Máirín O Grady, a futuristic satire following the exile of a chiropodist and his hapless brother to the desert (We’ve seen some of it and it’s brilliant).

It all kicks off in Fringe Lab Studio 1 at 7pm tomorrow evening in Dublin and admission is €3 with a refreshment (mmm… beer). Capacity is limited to 40 so people are only let in on a first come first served basis. And you may get ready to take your shoes off too. We hope to see you there.

Especially you Gael Garcia Bernal.

Post Mortem Photography

Mar

20,

2013

DeviousTheatres_NightOfTheLivingDead_ForWeb-1014

We still haven’t shook off those persistent living dead just yet. As we get the house in order for the new work we’ll be making this year, we have been filling in the archives with last years work. There is a lot of material left over from our Irish stage premiere of Night Of The Living Dead and so we’ve been dissecting it all post mortem style. And the results have been slowly released online in the past fortnight. First of all, we put together a video that looked at some of the highlights of the performance all tied together by the in show radio reports. Now, Ross Costigan, the man with the camera, has unleashed a brand new selection of bloody production photos from the show itself. Take a look below to see some of these new images from last years production in The Watergate Theatre. There might just be more coming to get you soon…

Maria Murray as the nurse ghoul.

Connie Walsh arrives as Babs.

Alan Doyle as the unfortunate forecourt attendant.

Adrian Kavanagh as Big Jimmy McClellan

Darragh Byrne lurking as the graveyard ghoul.

Director of the show John Morton in cameo zombies mode.

The Cooper Family have breakfast.

For more of these (and many more) photos, check out the gory selection on Ross Costigan’s website here.

Revisiting Night Of The Living Dead

Mar

10,

2013

This time last year we were up to our collective eyes in pre-production on Night Of The Living Dead, what was – and currently is – our biggest production to date.

We screened a recording of the show publicly during last years Rockfall Festival at which time cast, crew and the general public got to take a look at our Irish stage premiere, the trailers and a behind the scenes featurette. And now we are delighted to finally be able to present two minutes of highlights from the Watergate Theatre performance of Night Of The Living Dead. Scored by Replete and featuring the in show radio contributions from Edwina Grace, Martin Bridgeman and Brendan Corcoran, this video shows what we did with our version of George A. Romero’s classic horror story.

For more on the show, check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie

The Winner Is Irish Theatre

Feb

26,

2013

The Irish Times Theatre Awards took place on Sunday February 24th and the best of Irish theatre in the past 12 months and 52 weeks was highlighted, awarded and applauded.

We were manning the stations on our Twitter account, watching the action unfold in real time while we sat in our tuxes and ballgowns drinking cheap poitín. Twitter is at its best for award ceremonies so we got to join in on the conversation as it happened which was mostly a fine mix of jubilant and hilarious. We also kept an eye on Darragh Doyle’s maginificent Word Irish live blog (from which we’ve pilfered the results below) which kept us updated with results, commentary, tweets and images as it happened. The big winner was DruidMurphy which seemed to be everybody’s favourite thing from last year. It was definitely ours!

What was a real highlight for us though was the opening video that was produced by Rise Productions and presented by Aonghus Óg McAnally that paid tribute and parodied the well worn Just Sayin’ video whilst also paying tribute and parodying Irish theatre. It was funny, emotional and really packed a punch and it in itself is our main reason for writing this blog. The video has since been removed but if it remerges (and hopefully it will) pass it on to your theatrically inclined friends. It reminds us why we do what we do. The real winner last Sunday was Irish theatre.

Oh, and all the other winners were:

Judge’s Special Award won by Karl Shiels of Theatre Upstairs, Lanigan’s Bar, Dublin 1

Best Supporting Actor won by Aaron Monaghan – Conversations on a Homecoming, Druid Theatre Co.

Best Designer: Costume won by Peter O’Brien – The Talk of the Town & A Woman of No Importance

Best New Play won by The House Keeper – by Morna Regan for Rough Magic

Best Designer: Sound won by Little John Nee – Sparkplug, Absolut Fringe

Best Supporting Actress won by Marie Mullen – Conversations on a Homecoming, Druid Theatre Co.

Best Designer: Set won by Jamie Vartan – A Village Romeo and Juliet, Wexford Festival Opera

Best Director won by Annabelle Comyn – The House, The Abbey Theatre

Best Designer: Lighting won by Thomas Kluth – The Barber of Seville, Lismore Music Festival

Best Actress won by Catherine Walker – The Talk of the Town, Landmark Productions

Best Opera Production won by Pagliacci – Everyman Palace Theatre and Cork Operatic Society

Best Actor won by Declan Conlon – The House, The Abbey Theatre

Garry Hynes presents the Special Tribute award to Marie Mullen of Druid Theatre Co.

Best Production won by DruidMurphy – Druid Theatre Co.

A Cast Of Vultures

Jan

28,

2013

One project that many a Deviant has worked on over the past few years is the webcom Vultures. Produced by our film making friends over at Mycrofilms, Vultures is a detective comedy serial which had its online finale just last month. It finished up after a 5 year run that delivered 2 series and 12 episodes and saw it regularly become one of the top Irish comedy video podcasts on iTunes as well as a participant on the inaugural Irish Digital Comedy Lab.

The show was created in 2007 by Paddy Dunne, John Morton and Alan Slattery and along with Ross Costigan and Peter McGann they have all steered the creative end of the show up until it wrapped this past December. And it’s not just our offices they have co-opted for rehearsals, oh no. A lot of the regular Devious troupe have taken up the quirky names and heightened characteristics of the Vultures cast of characters over two series. These include David Thompson (Dan McGrain), Suzanne O’Brien (Janine Drew), Seán Hackett (Niall Tennyson), Stephen Colfer (Tom Moriarty), Annette O’Shea (Jane Tennyson), Amy Dunne (Maeve Munroe), Ken McGuire (Hamish Lane), John Doran (Ned Savage), Kevin Mooney (Quint Quigley), Connie Walsh (Kitty McCool), Alex Christle (Irene O’Haire) Niamh Moroney (Sarah Black), Simone Kelly (Roxy Lee), Jack O’Leary (Johnny Curragh), Maria Murray (May O’Neil), Niamh Moyles (Kate Marple), Colin O’Brien (Ronnie Drew), Paul Young (Inspector Hugh Leeson) and the aforementioned Messrs. Dunne (Pat Cairo), Morton (Jim Vultour) and Costigan (Jack Street).

With so much of an overlap between our creative team and regular acting troupe, Vultures definitely bears a lot of the comic hallmarks of a lot of our productions not to mention the genre skewing style of a Devious show. So if you’re interested in the kind of work our team makes, maybe you might want to check out the show? Both series of the show ended with a double barreled finale, the last of which was Dan McGrain In The Nick Of Time and The Dicks Who Came In From The Cold which aired at Christmas.

You can find all information on the show at www.VulturesPI.com and subscribe to it on iTunes and YouTube. And we suggest you do so!

While Vultures is definitely done in its run as a web series, there may be some more interesting developments from the show later this year. Like all good detective fiction, Vultures may yet prove to be infinitely adaptable. Keep your magnifying glasses alert. Spaces might just need to be watched.

Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

Jan

2013

A very happy new year from all of us to all of you! We’re currently in the process of tidying ourselves, our HQ and our archive up at the moment. As you can see from the below picture, our Night Of The Living Dead DVD’s are all done, packaged and awaiting distribution to the relevant parties and a little bit of filing. Our costume department is getting back to normal, the mess is a little less messy and the dust is settling on what was a busy and productive 2012.

We don’t want to blow the proverbial load on our 2013 wares just yet but we can, to an extent, talk about what we’ve been brewing up. Not only that, but there’s a lot of stuff we’re looking forward to in 2013. With so much doom and gloom about arts cuts and the lack of funding doing the rounds, we want to put the sunny side out! Here’s what we guess, is a preview of what we’re excited about… utilising lucky number 13.

1. It’s been 4 years since we won a PPI radio award for The War Of The Worlds. It’s taken us a lot longer than we thought to follow that one up and get back to radio theatre. In the past 12 months, we’ve been quietly developing three works for radio and you should see at least one of them hit the air this year. Our own Ken McGuire is a now a full disc jockeying member of the KCLR96FM staff and is in a great position to put his grand radio theatre ambitions into action. We’re gonna be all up in your ears.

2. John Doran and Kevin Mooney have been working on something that we’re very excited about. Watch this space.

3. Last year was a great year for development and workshopping of scripts with two of John Morton’s new plays Punctured and War Of Attrition getting the development treatment from Fishamble Theatre Company and Dublin Theatre Festival respectively. The follow up to Scratcher is on its way…

4. Niamh Moroney of this parish has also been developing some very exciting new work and very enticing new projects. It’s great to have her back in Kilkenny after a long and productive run in Cork and it’s even greater to see the fountain of ideas that she has spewing forth.

5. John Kennedy is working on a new play. This is a very good thing. John has been an integral member of our company ever since we took him onboard as associate writer for In The Future When All’s Well in late 2010. Shifting and Phantasm were two huge successes and he is currently working on a new play for us. It won’t be produced this year but we’re definitely excited about seeing what ‘An Scribhneoir’ is going to deliver.

6. Development time! We had the luxury of development time and funds last year and we’re in the very lucky position to have more of it again this year. New year! New work! New play!

7. The theatre scene in Kilkenny is really starting to heat up again which is great for everyone involved in theatre in the city. Spark Productions have claimed their crown as the exciting new kids in the county (check out the crowds for Brownbread, below), KATS came back with serious style and packed out houses and Barn Owl Players delivered a series of great productions in 2012. We’ve also seen a preview of Kilkenny Youth Theatre’s new show and it’s going to rock socks. With a brand new piece from Barnstorm Theatre Company on the way and Watergate Productions expanding their programme, it looks like it’s going to be a great year for theatre in the motherland.

8. We’re terribly excited about what this year’s Kilkenny Arts Festival theatre programme is going to deliver in 2013. Every year it brings something different and this year should be no exception.

9. We were very lucky to participate in THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: Vol 2 in 2011 with Scratcher and we’re even more excited to be watching the wares that are en route for this years festival which kicks off next week. We’ve already done a preview on it but we suggest you check out the programme and see what is going to be a fuck tonne of exciting theatre for very reasonable prices.

10. Festival season! We’re excited about the ever increasing amount of festivals kicking off in Kilkenny, not to mention our other favourites like Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival. Whichever way you break it down, there will be lots to see and do and many a reason to pillage your own bank accounts.

11. Hanging out in our gaff. 2012 was the first full year where we had the pleasure of taking advantage of having our own place. Being part of the This Is Not An Empty Space initiative from Kilkenny Arts Office has been an absolute gift and joy for us and we’re looking forward to another 12 months of meetings, rehearsals, workshops, brainstews, spitballs, mindfarts and all the times where people bring cakes and buns.

12. Progress. Every year since 2006 has seen us take bigger and bolder steps. This year is going to be no different. That’s something to get excited about.

13. You guys. We’re looking forward to meeting the audiences we haven’t met yet, the makers of theatre who we haven’t yet connected with and clapping our hands at the great shows we haven’t yet seen.

There’s a lot to be excited about this year. The future is brighter than you think.

7 Pictures For 7 Years

Dream Sequence

Playing Dead

KoHL

March Fringe Fuse

Post Mortem Photography

Revisiting Night Of The Living Dead

The Winner Is Irish Theatre

A Cast Of Vultures

Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

Play Now! Devious Theatre On Video!

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