Coming Up: Brassneck's Man In The Moon at the Belfast Waterfront

Man in the Moon brings captivating local theatre to Belfast Waterfront’s Studio from Wednesday 19 to Saturday 29 March.  (No performance on Sunday 23 March).

“A brave and stirring piece of theatre… marvellously engaging.”

(Irish Theatre Magazine)

Written by acclaimed playwright Pearse Elliott and starring Ciaran Nolan - one of Ireland’s most gifted young actors - this one man show is brought to you by Belfast's Brassneck Theatre Company, the producers of smash-hit shows The Sweety Bottle and A Night With George.

“Funny, fast-paced and unexpectedly poignant.”  

(Culture NI)

Powerful, poignant and funny, this darkly comedic roller-coaster is the tender story of one man’s resolve to overcome the worst that life has to throw at him.  Sean Doran has recently been fired from his dead-end job. To make matters worse, his girlfriend has left him, taking their child, and the bank has just repossessed his house.

And so, we find Sean alone by the Half Moon Lake, a natural lagoon in the middle of Lenadoon Housing Estate in West Belfast, which although beautiful is known as a place of tragedy.

“Belly laughs, scene after scene.”  

(Irish News)

Over the course of one moonlit evening he takes us on a soul-searching journey through life, love and death, via his past, present and future.  He takes us on a ghost hunt of some of the funny people he has known and hilarious situations he has experienced in his life, whilst trying to fashion sense of his recent run of bad luck.

“Brassneck have pushed their creative boundaries with this play, which although comedic in many senses, deals with deeply serious and relevant subject matters.”

Writer, Pearse Elliott

“I have drawn parallels with the classic movie, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. Sean is our George Bailey and throughout Man In The Moon he talks and tries to make sense of his life and all the bad events that have come his way.  Reflecting on the people he has lost to suicide, Sean looks for a way to deal with everything and troop on. This is a story of survival, choices and how we can make a difference in this world.”

Director Tony Devlin

Man in the Moon is recommended for ages 15+ and contains strong language.

Tickets for Man in the Moon are available at www.waterfront.co.uk

Love For Sale at the Belfast Book Festival

Last week was a busy week...
Work, The All Ireland Performing Arts Conference, the kids, Castleton Lanterns, a wee genealogy project and co-producing The Break Musical at Pick N Mix. Somehow I managed to find time to go and see Love For Sale at the Grand Opera House (part of the Belfast Book Festival).  


Adapted from a short story 'Love for Sale $17.50' by Charles Bukowski, Black Egg presented this odd and slightly unnerving story of a man who falls in love with a mannequin.  I'm sure it was a difficult sell, but I like weird things, so off I went, dragging along the lovely Drew Dillon to accompany me.

James Doran tells the story of Robert, (Michael Liebmann) who has always had a thing for dolls. He limits his desires to his sexual fantasies until by chance he meets Stella, standing in the window of a junk shop... 
He offers the owner a price and he brings her home.  This relationship is obviously quite odd, and the audience is slightly unnerved as Robert stands he in the middle of his living room, talking to her and touching her as if she is not an inanimate object.  There is some nervous laughter in the audience and a few baffled looks.  With interruptions from his friend (Ciaran Nolan) and female lover (Jo Donnelly), he hides Stella away so they can't see.  He turns down drinks in the pub and does not want his girlfriend to stay over.  

“...there were advantages – he didn’t have to take her to dinner, to parties, to dull movies; all those mundane things that meant so much to the average woman. And there were arguments. There would always be arguments, even with a mannequin.”

He falls more in love, he dresses Stella up, talks to her, makes love to her. Eventually he realises that he shouldn't be ashamed of her and decides to tell his girlfriend, when all hell breaks loose.  The really lovely thing about the play is the direction by Fionnuala Kennedy and Paul Caddell, which subtly leads the audience's emotions in the opposite direction from where they started.  At the beginning of the play, we are disgusted by Robert's obsession, by the end we are rooting for him.  In the fight with his girlfriend, it's her that appears unhinged, not Robert, even though if this happened in real life, we would all react in the same way she does.  

We were all wondering if, in fact, we all wouldn't like a Stella in our lives? 

Karen


http://twitter.com/classygenes

Love, Billy at the Lyric Belfast Review

Love, Billy is part of the Lyric Theatre's Belfast season, Graham Reid bringing back Belfast’s most famous family for a fifth installment in the now legendary series of Billy plays.

"Love, Billy sees Billy Martin returning to Belfast after 25 years away. He left without warning or informing anyone and now all of the Martin family are awaiting Billy’s arrival to celebrate their father Norman’s 74th birthday. They haven’t seen Billy in all that time and still have no inkling of why he left. There are family grudges to be resolved and Billy’s story to be revealed, at the heart of which is a man struggling to adapt to a family and city he knew so well but hardly recognises any more."

There are some fine performances, especially from Joe McGann and George Shane who inhibit their characters with confidence.  It was great to hear mention of a relation of mine, Buck Alec and his toothless lion (also mentioned in Brassneck's latest production The Sweety Bottle).  I thought there were some really nice moments of wit, particularly from Ciarán Nolan as Ernie Greer, and from George Shane as Norman Martin, Billy's father.

But in the end, I have to be honest, I found this show difficult to enjoy.  While it did have some nice moments, overall the production is bland.  Some of the words seem unnatural in the characters' mouths, the script could be edited into an hour long show without losing anything and nothing of importance or interest happens.  While the set looked nice, it's angle made it very difficult to hear, as at times the actor's voices were not projected out into the auditorium (I was six rows from the front).  Cutting out the pointless set changes and paring down the repetitive script may have allowed the actors to build up a bit more energy.

At curtain call the actors were clearly expecting a standing ovation when the audience applauded politely instead.  It seems it was a night of disappointment for both them and me.

Love, Billy runs till 25th May at the Lyric Belfast.  Click here to book tickets. I'd love to know what your thoughts are.



Karen

http://twitter.com/classygenes