New Update

Annual General Meeting

This AGM takes place in the theatre on Thursday 3rd September at 8 o’clock. We would like to see as many as possible attend and of course if you know someone who wishes to get involved, then bring them along. The full programme of events for the upcoming season will be announced on the night and of course it’s your opportunity to have your say in matters theatrical. Refreshments will be provided.

First Play

Sive, by John B. Keane will be the first play of the new season. The play is directed by Therese Byrne and will be presented in the theatre at the end of October. A reading of the play, with a view to casting, will take place in the theatre on Monday 7th September at 8 o’clock. Everybody is welcome.

Workshop

We are conscious that as a new play starts a lot of our members are in a “theatrical limbo” and so this year we are starting out with an early workshop and for that we have acquired the services of Belinda Wild as our workshop facilitator. Belinda, who lives in Kinsale, has vast experience in this area and as well as giving courses to groups like us, she has been a tutor at the week-long DLI drama school in Limerick for the last 3 years.

Dr Fell

“I do not like thee, Dr Fell” by Bernard Farrell is well into rehearsal under the guidance of Billy Nott. Billy has assembled a stellar cast including old hands Ronan Flynn, John McGlynn, Chrissie Killian, Jason Gill and Maria Griffin and introducing some new talent with Aileen Keena and Albert Gillick.

The show runs from Sunday 28th February to Friday 5th March 2010. Make a diary note!

Bernard Farrell is considered to be one of Irelands most popular playwrights. Dr. Fell was his first play and is considered by many to be his best. It was first performed in the Abbey Theatre in 1979.The play, a black comedy with strong elements of thriller and mystery, is funny, gripping and highly entertaining. It centres around a group therapy session involving six people. There is Suzy, the group co-ordinator, who hails from the US whose remedy for any problem is to ‘relax, relate, communicate’. Roger, an intellectual snob, has dedicated his life to attending group therapy sessions around the world and thus knows the ‘modus operandi’. Peter, a builder, and his wife Maureen are there because Maureen is highly strung – according to Peter. Rita speaks of nothing else but her twelve cats and her husband, who died three years previously. There’s the mysterious Joe – the Dr. Fell of the title. Just why he’s there is not initially obvious, but his presence and behaviour act as a catalyst, which turns the session into a roller coaster ride for the other participants. And then there’s Paddy, the group attendant, an outsider looking in who views the participants as weirdos.

Big Maggie

Rehearsals are well advanced for this production, one of John B Keane’s most popular plays. Paddy Martin has assembled a sterling cast for this show that runs at the Little Theatre from 1st to 7th November. His direction is particularly well rewarded with the work of stalwart Anne Hoey who plays Maggie, thundering out her words with precision and ease. King of the one-liner, Keane has always added comic strength to his work and none more so than this play written in 1969. Be prepared to laugh, and cry, as Big Maggie Polpin, the indomitable matriarch at the heart of this drama, gets to grips with her life after the death of her hard-drinking, womanising husband. Typically, money and land – and secret sex – are the forces driving most of the characters. Now that Maggie has buried her abusive husband, and the shop and farm are finally hers, she will brook no argument from anyone, not even her squabbling, self-serving grown-up children. This is the setting for what promises to be a funny, perceptive and thought-provoking production.

Maggie’s sharp and sparky eldest daughter, Katie, is played superbly by Mary Johnston, no stranger to the Little Theatre stage. Her meeker sister, Gert, is played by newcomer Maria Griffin from Galway. Paul Slevin and Dermot McManus, old hands at this stage, play Maggie’s sons Maurice and Mick. John McGlynn returns to the Little Theatre as the slickly charming commercial traveller, Teddy Heelin and Byrne, the monumental sculptor and lacklustre suitor of Maggie, is in the safe hands of Clive Darling. Little Theatre supporters will be delighted to welcome back Brian Quigley and Bridget Turner in cameo roles. Chrissie Killian puts in a great turn as the hissing, spitting Mrs Madden while her daughter, Mary, is played by local newcomer Mairead O’Connor.

The show runs for seven nights from 1st November with the first nights proceeds going to the local charity office of Simon.