By Willy Russell, perfomed at the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, July 21st-25th 2009
About The Show
Continuing our running exploration of aimlessness and disenchantment in your twenties, we performed Willy Russell’s working class(ic) comedy for the first time in Kilkenny. Russell’s play first debuted in the Everyman Theatre in the writer’s native Liverpool in 1978. It has continually gone on to be performed and adapted all over the world since then. Set between the male and female toilets of a dingy Liverpool nightclub, Stags and Hens tells the story of Linda and Dave’s last night of freedom before they marry the next day. Dave has just crashed into the pub, absolutely legless with his sick splattered mates yanking him straight to the gents.
Linda, meanwhile, just wants to dance away her doubts about the impending nuptials. So this would be a very bad time for an old flame to show up.
Add to this the fact that both the stag and hen parties have ended up in the same club and we have the recipe for a bittersweet comedy of drunken embarrassments that’s alternately heartbreaking and hilarious. Our production was directed by Kevin Mooney with the following cast:
Stags & Hens Cast
- Maureen – Mairead Kiernan
- Bernie – Ciara Donegan
- Carol – Lynsey Moran
- Frances – Maria Murray
- Linda – Roisin O’Reilly
- Dave – John Doran
- Robbie – John Morton
- Kav – Geoff Warner Clayton
- Billy – Stephen Colfer
- Eddy – Ken McGuire
- Peter – Eddie Murphy
- Roadie – Paul Young
The play takes place on the night before Dave and Linda’s wedding. Liverpool, 1978.
Stags & Hens Crew
- Directed by Kevin Mooney
- Assistant Directed by Niamh Moroney
- Produced by Paddy Dunne, Ken McGuire, John Morton
- Stage Manager – Colm Sheenan
- Lighting Design – Gerry Taylor
- Sound Design – Ken McGuire
- Sound Operator – James Doran
- Production Designer – Paddy Dunne
- Art Direction – Thom Dowling
- Set Design – Eddie Brennan
- Set Construction – Thom Dowling, Frank Dowling, Kevin Mooney
- Costumes – Niamh Moroney
- Make Up – Aileen Johnson, Jodie White
- Poster Design – Paddy Dunne
- Transport – Stephen Colfer, Anthony Mahony, Eddie Murphy
- Photography – Ross Costigan, Paddy Dunne, David Galster, Ken McGuire
- Front Of House – Biff Walsh, Teagan Jermyn
- Programme Design – Paddy Dunne
- Programme Text – Ken McGuire, John Morton
