john kennedy Tag Archive

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August 24, 2012 • devious theatre

A Ghost Of A Play

Phantasm has just hit Kilkenny for the first of five performances during this years OUT For The Weekend festival.

This is our third run around with John Kennedy’s new play after previously playing Solstice, Cork and Abhainn Ri, Callan throughout the summer. It’s lovely to bring the play back home to Kilkenny, especially to Cleeres Theatre. We return there six years to the week that we opened our very first play Heart Shaped Vinyl in the theatre on August 22nd 2006. It’s all fuzzy and nostalgic being back there after all this time. It’s also the first time I’ve directed a full play there so it’s pretty cool to get to stage one in the place we started.

I wrote a piece about that for the Devious Theatre website earlier this week. Specifically about the new blood that we’ve brought into the troupe in the past 18 months… or Pass Devious as Colin O’Brien likes to call them. Here’s a bit of regurgitation:

What was really strange was looking at the contrast in what we were producing now and yet, how similar it was at the same time. We were looking at the three guys now, specifically John Kennedy (the writer) and Colin O’Brien and Hazel Doyle (our cast). They’re all from Kilkenny, all brought through the same youth theatre mill as us and like us six years ago, here they are in Cleeres Theatre at a young age doing their first original play for an audience in there. Six years ago, Hazel had just done her first play with Dreamstuff Youth Theatre (the first play I ever directed incidentally) and John and Colin were probably out kicking ball like most 12 year old pups during a World Cup summer. In our youthful wisdom, we were shocked when people packed out Heart Shaped Vinyl in 2006. People wanted to see us make our own theatre? Hell, we didn’t even put our own real names on it, such was the fear of landing on our arses (props to Billy Shears and Tony M. Everard by the way). The lads now still have that slight wariness that people won’t be bothered seeing what they’re doing. But they will. Six years on we’ve worked hard to make sure that there is an audience for them. And that audience has been there to see them throughout this summer in Cork, Callan and now, Kilkenny. We’ve toured it, we’ve played to different crowds in unique places, to theatre people and non theatre people, people who just want to see a good teen stoner comedy and people who have no idea what to expect, and it has always gone down well. And now we bring it home.

So yeah, it’s a bit of a home coming in more ways than one. The reception to the opening performance last night was really special. There was a lovely vibe in Cleeres Theatre and we had a packed house and even though the fucking bed broke so what more can you ask for? Well, probably for people to keep on coming to see it. It’s our last play of the year so try and grab it before the final show at 10pm on Saturday!

If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the trailer for the play:

Phantasm runs tonight and tomorrow at 7pm and 10pm. Tickets are €8 and can be bought at Cleeres Theatre, Parliament Street or booked on 056-7762573 or else you can grab them online here.

 

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1421

June 26, 2012 • devious theatre

Phantasm

I’m directing two plays at the moment (because I’m a glutton for punishment like that). One of which, Night Of The Living Dead, I’ve already written at length about. The other of which, I haven’t. That play is Phantasm by John Kennedy and it opens this week at Solstice as part of Cork Midsummer Festival.

Solstice is a fantastic arts event that takes place during the Midsummer Festival in Cork and it showcases the work of a whole bunch of talented artists with the focus mostly on younger artists. We played the inaugural festival last year with Smitten and it was definitely one of the best experiences we’ve ever had with Devious Theatre. Too. much. craic. So we’re delighted to be invited back for more of the same!

I’ve been working with John Kennedy for over a year now on various plays. He’s essentially the associate writer with Devious Theatre. And he’s just fucking brilliant. That’s it really. He’s an extremely talented playwright and as he’s still vaguely a pup, he’s only going to get better. We took him on board to develop a play for In The Future When All’s Well last year and that play was Shifting. Phantasm is his follow up. It’s a shorter piece (essentially a one act) and it focuses on just two characters, aimless teenage pot heads Adam and Frankie. They are played by Colin O’Brien and Hazel Doyle who I have loved working with on this show. I worked with Colin last year on Shifting and many a year ago I cast Hazel in the first play I ever directed, a production of The Colleen Bawn. It’s been a blast so far and I’m really excited about showcasing the work of three extremely talented young artists at Solstice.

Phantasm was described in the Irish Independent this past weekend as ‘an examination of the drug addled psyche of Leaving Cert students’ and that seems like a pretty good way to sum it up. It’s sweet, funny, nasty and dirty. And it has lots of foxes in it. I’m also lucky to have such fantastic collaborators as Ken McGuire, Niamh Moyles, David Thompson and Gemma Grant working on it to help make a 30 minute slice of some of the most devious theatre we’ve produced yet. We’re presenting it as a work in progress (yes, it will be returning… soon!) and we hope it turns out to a hell of a trip.

Oh, don’t take drugs kids.

Phantasm opens Thursday June 28th at midnight and is performed again at 4.30pm on Saturday June 30th at Solstice. For tickets, go to this very link: http://solsticecork.com/devious-theatre/

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1066

June 11, 2012 • devious theatre

It’s Funny How We All Ended Up Here

Here’s our newest character poster for Night Of The Living Dead.

Frankie is a completely new character that doesn’t exist in the original film. Myself and Connie Walsh created him for the play because we needed an extra male character for certain plot points and to convey some of the Irish centric themes of the play. He’s played by John Kennedy and as you can see, he’s under a lot of pressure in this poster. For the concept of the poster, we went with the idea of Frankie trying to escape into an attic. We don’t really have basements in Irish stories so we changed it to a Stira for the purposes of the play. Also, the sticks for Stira’s are lethal if you flake someone with them. Especially in the head.

Night Of The Living Dead runs from July 24th – 28th in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Check out www.nightofthelivingdead.ie for more details.

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1159

July 21, 2011 • devious theatre

Getting The Shift

As the dust settles on our In The Future When All’s Well residency in Kilkenny Arts Office, we’re slowly starting to get around to organising the archive of material that came out of it. Which it turns out, is a shit load.

We’ve been putting a DVD together for Shifting with a few extra bits and pieces and it seemed as opportune a time as any to show a bit of it off on the internet. Out of the 3 plays we produced in the past 6 months I think this one was my favourite and I only wish we could have run if for longer, but hey, at least we have it preserved so I’m not going to complain.

This scene from Shifting opens the second act with a good old drunken sing song. We had plenty of precedence for putting this together in fairness. Most parties at Devious Theatre usually involve Bohemian Rhapsody at some stage so this was all too familiar to us.

Out of the context of the play, this is just a bunch of teenagers being drunk and singing Bohemian Rhapsody. And yeah, in context, that’s pretty much it too!

Enjoy!

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1319

April 28, 2011 • Uncategorized

Finishing Shifting

Shifting took it’s final bow on Saturday night to it’s sixth standing ovation and sixth consecutive sold out show.

Suffice to say, it was one of the most successful shows in the 5 year history of Devious Theatre. All the more remarkable considering it had a completely new (and youthful) cast, a debut script from a brand new writer and no name value bar any name value the company might have.

We definitely don’t take for granted that our shows will turn into red hot sell outs so we always push the promo material really hard. All the more so when you’ve got a new show to sell. We pushed it hard in terms of promo videos, posters, radio vignettes and promo images. I guess we always underestimated (as we do), the appeal of new work. Especially when we work in a town where the familiar staple is king, be it pantomime, John B.Keane or musical. However, this was the first time where we saw that our focus on new work is enough in itself. That maybe we didn’t need to push new work extra hard. We just needed to do it. And we just needed to do it because people wanted to see original work. And there’s always going to be a hunger for it.

The cast were excellent. Excellent to work with, consistent in their delivery, a joy to direct and everything you want in actors: committed, dedicated, reliable and inventive. I know I’m in danger of gush overload but they absolutely made the play and we were so proud to have them as part of our company. The cast are going to go far I think and we’ll definitely be using them again. The same goes for the teenage members of our crew who were all committed, dedicated and on the ball. I must give special praise to Eleanor Walsh, our assistant director who diligently wrote everything down and never missed one single rehearsal.

I worked with John Kennedy for the past 5 months on the script. It wasn’t the ideal amount of time for him. It wasn’t the ideal amount of time for us. It’s just how it worked out. We knew what we wanted. He knew what he wanted to write. He was delighted to be able to write plenty of ‘fuck’s’ and ‘cocks’ and have no one censor him. We found a middle ground, gave John all the resources and support that he needed and at the beginning of March he delivered a script. His very first completed play. Shifting was everything we wanted it to be and in the end it was everything a teen audience wanted. As we saw when they came rushing in to buy the opening night €5 tickets. Cheapskates. But yeah, teenagers get ‘pandered’ to or generally condescended but they rarely get spoken to, honestly and directly, in theatre. That was our main objective. And that was why we wanted a teenage writer to do that. Anything else would just be extrapolation.

The reviews have been sweet so far. You can read some of them here and also, here. It was possibly my most favourite play I’ve worked on. I’ve had an overwhelming sense of pride and joy (along with festering regret and hole poking) in everything we’ve done with Devious Theatre. But this one might have been the best. Maybe because it was the best. But maybe, because above everything, it was all about the future.

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1043

April 11, 2011 • devious theatre, stage play

Shifting On…

We launched the trailer for Shifting this past weekend and here it is.

     

A lovely little montage of kisses and thought processes of the characters, it was directed by Paddy Dunne and written by the writer of the play itself, John Kennedy. It’s soundtracked by a version of Morrissey’s ‘I Know Very Well How I Got My Name’ as covered by our own Jessica Walsh.

I’ve been going overtime on the play the past few weeks as we approach the opening night. I’ve found myself directing a little less, writing notes a little more and generally trying to slot the final pieces into place without dropping anything, like a game of Buckaroo. To give a precautionary evaluation of how it’s going to be, I’d say it’s going to be great. Done. Tickets are starting to fly out and flu is spreading all around No. 76. It could be something to do with all the kissing in this video but I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Shifting opens on April 18th and runs until April 23rd. All details can be found over at devioustheatre.com

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1299

April 5, 2011 • devious theatre, devious+theatre, stage play, Uncategorized

The Shifting Posters

I’m currently directing, Shifting, the second part of Devious Theatre’s ‘In The Future When All’s Well’ series. The play is written by John Kennedy who has been working on it since the end of last year and throughout the first 3 months of our residency in Kilkenny Arts Office. It’s a funny, charming and bittersweet look at the inevitable intersection between your teenage years and adulthood. In fact, in terms of previous Devious Theatre plays I like to call this one our John Hughes. That’s kicking the hypometer up to a high point but fuck it, no harm in aiming high.

We’ve just released 3 individual character posters for Shifting as designed by Paddy Dunne, the magician behind all of our promo imagery. It’s basically 12 teenagers on a couch. What’s not to love?

Shifting plays in No. 76 John Street from April 18th – 23rd. Tickets are onsale in No. 76, online at DeviousTheatre.com or can be booked on 056 – 7794138. If anyone’s looking for discounts, the opening night is only €5!

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