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.
