liverpool Category

Church On Time: Stags and Hens Closes

The Devious Theatre Company wrapped Stags and Hens on Saturday night with a heavy, Red Bull accelerated heart. It was without a doubt my favourite production to work on so far in the three years of Devious Theatre. From an actors perspective, I never had as much fun working on a text. Probably because it was the first time I hadn’t written, adapted, rewritten or polished something. The cringe factor was out the window on this one. And it was great to take a well written and finely tuned piece of writing and apply the acting process to it. And also to bring something as colourful, fun and relevant as Stags and Hens to a Kilkenny audience was a real joy.

The cast were extremely tight knit and close in a way that none of our casts had been before. I don’t mean physically close although with that final scene in the hallway there’s definitely a case to by made. But the chemistry was great and it really helped the final product.

Anyway, it’s all done and dusted now and put to bed. We got some great feedback, great audiences and wonderful support from a lot of people. Ken has documented all of this in a blog he’s just written over on the website, which can be viewed right here.

With all bases covered, I want to say a personal thanks to an amazing cast of actors, a fantastic committed crew and a very special thanks to a wonderfully supportive and talented director in Kevin Mooney.

So until the next Devious Theatre production, tarar. And hey, we’re not done for 2009. Not by a long shot. Oh no. It is my dream to play a judge…

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Stags and Hens: The Cast

The Blood Brothers Featuring Peter Taylor (Eddie Murphy)

The Roadie (Paul Young)
Bernie and Eddy (Ciara Donegan and Ken McGuire)
Robbie and Billy (Myself and Stephen Colfer)
Linda (Roisin O’Reilly)
Dave (John Doran)
Carol and Maureen (Lynsey Moran and Mairead Kiernan)
Kav and Frances (Geoff Warner Clayton and Maria Murray)


The character intros in full can be viewed on www.devioustheatre.com. All these lovely promo images were designed by Paddy Dunne. Stags and Hens starts next week in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. It runs from July 21st -25th.

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Stags and Hens

At the weekend we launched the 2009 programme for The Devious Theatre Company with a wee session and meet and greet in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Kevin Mooney made the announcement that our main production for this year would be a production of Willy Russell’s STAGS AND HENS, which he will be taking the directing reins on.

This is one that I’m really amped up about doing. The play is just an actor’s playground and Kev has put together a really diverse ensemble cast of which I am delighted to be part of.

The play is a very sharp comedy about the social mores of a bunch of working class Liverpudlians in 1978. It all takes place in the ladies and gents bathrooms of a dingy nightclub where both the stag and hen parties of the same wedding have ended up. And from there, things take some very funny, dark and emotional twists and turns along the way. It’s a fantastically well written play, definitely the best we’ve worked on so far. Over the years it has been marred a little by successions of dodgy student productions which tend to play up the booze and debauchery instead of the story and character but we’re intent on keeping the story to the fore. And it’s a damn good story.

Rehearsals started this week. Lots of acting rust to shake off. And the Liverpool accent is a bastard. I sound like one of the Chuckle Brothers at the moment.

All updates on Stags and Hens are going to be hitting the Devious Theatre website as we have ’em.

Also at the launch we announced our involvement in Shakespeare In The House and nicely asked people for funding by launching our ‘Friends Of’ program.

More of which can be found over on the website. I’ll write further about Shakespeare In The House as our programme comes together for it.

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