Kevin Barry’s wild and vivid imagination is one of the treasures of contemporary Irish fiction.
The award-winning author has to date written two novels - City of Bohane (2011) and Beatlebone (2015) - and two short story collections - There are Little Kingdoms (2007) and Dark Lies the Island (2012) - which have seen him sweep every award seemingly available to a writer in this country from the Rooney Prize to the Goldsmith Prize to the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Having unshackled dystopian Limerick in City of Bohane, and let a fictional John Lennon seek his island off the coast of Mayo in Beatlebone, his focus now turns to Cork and away from prose as he has written a confined familial drama, Autumn Royal, which premieres in the Everyman Theatre in Cork on January 30th before touring to the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, and the Dock in Carrick-On-Shannon.
A two-hander directed by Catriona McLaughlin, the play tackles a family dynamic that will resonate with audiences as siblings, May (Siobhan McSweeney) and Timothy (Shane Casey), decide what to do with their ageing father who has taken to the bed upstairs, somewhat demented and in need of care.
The title, Autumn Royal, refers to the names of the nursing homes they’re considering placing their father in. The piece doesn’t shirk from an issue more and more people face these days as Barry engages with the pressing question of how we treat our ageing population.
With the two characters lives on hold desperation starts to seep in as a decision will have to be made soon. Mystifyingly, the house has 38 washing machines. These are used as a dramatic device that bends time with some dark consequences revealed for the family.
Kevin Barry had found his novels populated with more and more dialogue so a play seemed a logical next step.
“It feels very natural for me to write with actors in mind, I’ve been writing short films and little plays, that seems the direction it’s going… It had gotten so obvious, even I couldn’t miss it, that I should try to write a play.”
One thing he seems to be enjoying is the company. It’s not just him and his characters in his shed in Sligo. What are the differences he finds from writing prose?
“It’s a different level of interrogation a text gets with writing novels or stories. Then you get polite and loving letters from editors with polite suggestions. With a play [in the rehearsal room] every line is picked apart and you’re asked what it’s doing and how it’s moving us on.
“It’s a really rigorous process working with the actors. It makes you look at the nuts and bolts of what you’re writing and get all the parts moving smoothly.”
Whether it’s a short story, a novel or a play, the twisted imagination of Kevin Barry will always be recognisable in the finished piece.
“With everything I write, and with this as well, I always hope that people laugh all the way through and then at the end go, Jesus, what were we laughing at?”
Autumn Royal opens in the Everyman Theatre on January 30th and runs until February 4th, before moving to the Project and then finishing up in the Dock in Carrick-On-Shannon on Thursday, 23rd February.
