This June, as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival, The Everyman and Rosa Productions present the world premiere of Evening Train, a new musical inspired by Mick Flannery's acclaimed concept album of the same name. Mick writes for Culture about Evening Train, and its journey to the stage.
The album Evening Train was a project born out of one song, called Creak In The Door.
This song is comprised of three separate conversations between a mother and her son, as he returns from work at night. As the song progresses she is increasingly worried about the fate of her other son, Luther. The song's refrain has Frank, the son coming home from work, express that in his future he will be inclined to keep stories of his youth to himself.
This song itself had an odd inception. It was inspired by a photograph I saw of a set of twins, Luther and Johnny Htoo. They had been professed holy leaders of 'God's Army', a group of Karen people who fought against the Burmese army in the 1990's.
In this photo I saw two innocent children, thrust into power, one seemingly in soft fear, and the other almost the picture of youthful sociopathy.
I did not and don't feel like I ought to write about the politics of Burma and those acting upon it, so I localised the idea of an unfortunate accident of birth, in the Creak in the Door metaphor.
I then ran with the story of two very different brothers interacting with an environment I knew more of, namely a small town. Looking back now the difference in environments seems insulting to the hardship suffered by the people involved in the war in Burma, but as I said, I did not feel I could tell the story of these particular twins, nor do I feel that the Evening Train album says anything about their story.
It was merely an accident of inspiration.
I was around 18 years old when I wrote Creak in The Door. It wasn't until two years later, my second year in Music Management and Sound course at Colasite Stiofan Naofa in Cork, that I undertook the project to flesh out the song into an album.
It took over a year to write, I believe, and went through various narrative arrangements.
The project was initially to write a musical, but after numerous attempts at dialogue I waded out of the cheese I had written, gave up, and decided to make an album accompanied by a simple narrative thread.
I saw myself in both brothers of the story. I had/have a tendency towards risk-taking/gambling (like Luther). I also could be accused of spending too much time in bars throughout my life. The vocation I was pursuing did not get in the way here.
I was (and am) quite shy, though, and I often found myself too reticent especially when it came to relationships, leading me to be jealous and resentful of those more charming and confident in this way (like Frank).
This could be the reason that the brothers in this story fall for the same woman, Grace. Perhaps I was trying to get the story to tell me which brother it would be preferable to emulate in real life.
A few times in the years that followed, people approached me with various ideas of performing the album on stage or on screen. Ursula Rani Sarma rang me one day and said that she would be interested in writing a stage adaptation of the album. I think she did a wonderful job of this, bringing the world to life, giving more meat to the characters, adding and subtracting with her knowledge of the theatre world.
It has been a long road to getting this play to the stage. I thank everybody involved.
Special thanks to Sheena Keane and Julie Kelleher.
I rarely utter these words, but, I am excited.
Written by Ursula Rani Sarma, directed by Annabelle Comyn and featuring a live band that includes composer Mick Flannery, Evening Train receives its World Premiere at The Everyman, Cork from 13 – 23 June, as part of this year's Cork Midsummer Festival - find out more here.
Pictures: Darragh Kane
