sheer tantrum Tag Archive

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January 8, 2013 • theatre

Konstantin Has Shot Himself

My first job for the new year is a new play with Sheer Tantrum for THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: Vol 3. This is a brilliant festival organised by the good people of THEATREclub and one I’ve been lucky enough to participate in before when Scratcher had its debut performance at Vol 2 in February 2011. It was a brilliant experience and myself and the Devious Theatre team got to see a lot of great shows and generally had the height of craic over a couple of days in Dublin.

This time I’m working with Sheer Tantrum on their new play Konstantin Has Shot Himself. It’s a devised piece that we’ve been working on since late November and it revolves around Chekhov’s famous play The Seagull. Although if you’re not familiar with that play (or if you just plain hate Chekhov), it’s no impediment to enjoying it. We’re mostly focusing on themes that The Seagull brings up like the nature of performance, art vs entertainment and what it is to fail as an artist. And check it out, we have a puppet in it too… he’s pretty sound. Chekhov thought the play he wrote was a comedy… and good for him. So we’ve definitely taken a comic approach to it and it should provide plenty of laughs, like all good classic Russian theatre!

The production is directed by the show’s mastermind Vincent A. O’Reilly and I’ve been delighted to work with a crack team of brilliant actors in Alicja Ayres, Duncan Lacroix, Sinead O’Brien and Simon Toal. We’re still tightening it before its debut performance on Thursday in Project Arts Centre but if you like laugh out loud comedies about suicidal 19th century Russian dramatists, well then you’re in for a treat. And if you don’t like that, you’re still in for a treat.

Konstantin Has Shot Himself is one of the New Releases of THE THEATRE MACHINE TURNS YOU ON: Vol 3. It plays Project Arts Centre on January 10th and 11th at 7pm nightly and you can book your tickets right here.

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1523

November 12, 2012 • Uncategorized

A Bucket Full Of Fire

For the next two weeks I’ll be using my acting on the newest production from Dublin based theatre company Sheer Tantrum. The play is A Bucket Full Of Fire by Darren Donohue and this will mark its debut production.

The play has been summarised as thus:

As dawn approaches six people gather around a well and a bed. They amuse, torment and confront each other but only the strongest among them will survive the night…

I play one of the six people, Blic. And I am mostly gathered around the bed. Which is highly relaxing at times. Blic is a blast of a part and I’ve been having a whole lot of fun playing with it over the last few weeks of rehearsals. This is the second of Darren’s shows that I have worked on after last appearing in Voices In The Rubble which Sheer Tantrum produced last year. He’s an amazing writer and his style is so distinct and original that I’m certain it’s going to be produced for many a year to come.

I’m working under the direction of the brilliant Vincent A O’Reilly and a great cast consisting of Simon Toal, Sinead O’Brien, Paul Travers, Vincent Browning, Grace Barry and Sarah Flanagan.

So if you’re looking to see an exciting new Irish company perform some great new writing, then Smock Alley this week is the place to be! It runs from tonight November 12th until Saturday November 24th at 8pm nightly. You can book your tickets at Smock Alley or else right here!

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1253

November 27, 2011 • Theatre

Voices In The Rubble

What’s currently keeping me busy is this new production from Sheer Tantrum which is enjoying a 2 week run up in the Pearse Centre in Dublin City.

The Dublin based company are performing two absurd one act plays, the first of which is The Applicant which is written and directed by Vincent A. O’Reilly. I saw it for the first time last night (normally I’m quaffing Red Bull backstage… or Blue Bear, depending on finances) and it’s absolutely fantastic. A really sharp, pointed, funny, satirical piece of theatre with some brilliant performances. It was my first opportunity to see how the two plays matched up. Really well it turns out.

I’m working on Voices In The Rubble which is written and directed by Darren Donohue. I’m in a cast which also includes Frank Conlon, Amy Dunne and David Thompson. That’s the four of us up above there. Fun fact: That picture in no way relates to anything that happens in the play. I don’t have a clue what we were doing there… but we look into it.

It’s another really fast paced, sharp piece of absurd theatre which revolves around 40 years of marriage being condensed into 40 minutes. Somebody recently asked me what it was like and I described it as ‘I Love Lucy directed by David Lynch’. I think that sums it up. We previously performed it in Kilkenny back in September and it’s been great to take it up to Dublin for a spin.

The previews and first two performances have come and gone and now we’ve got one more week left in the Pearse Centre (which is a really lovely new performance space right in the centre of Dublin). You can book tickets online at entertainment.ie or else get them on the door. It runs until this Friday December 2nd and kick off is at 7.30pm nightly.

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