Playwright Eugene O'Brien introduces Mespil In The Dark Live, his latest collaboration with Pan Pan Theatre Company, which comes to Dublin's Samuel Beckett Theatre this September.
Mespil In The Dark, the live show, is a dark comedy about the hell of making theatre. The end of a certain type of Bohemia. It is about the tyranny of the director and the tragedy of being forgotten, of being left behind. Of leaving a void. What will fill it?
Mespil In The Dark started life as a series of six short films based around the bohemian actor-writer residents of the Mespil flats in Dublin.
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Now, the stage show Mespil In The Dark Live sets out to explore what theatre can do that film can’t. The show will scrap all naturalistic conventions… It will not try to imitate film or attempt to directly translate the films to the stage. There is no plan to build an apartment block set. A bare stage will be constructed in the Samuel Beckett theatre and the audience will surround it on three sides. The setting is the imagination of the audience. The focus is on real theatrical aesthetics. The nervous system of a theatre audience is not as passive as when watching TV or Film. Live theatre activates different layers of creativity in the audience.
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The show centres on Bill O’Malley, an older actor, who has summoned three other actors from the Mespil flats to put on a play which he has written. A dark comedy about an actor tyrant and his family who tour the country. We watch the painful process of rehearsing the play. We hear stories of lives spent in the theatre. A pantomime horse makes an appearance as well as many other surprises.
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The actors’ newcomer, Ahmed Karim Tamu, is a pharmacist and hip-hop artist. Andrew Bennett is a frequent collaborator with Pan Pan and star of much heralded Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin. Pauline Hutton from Derry, started her career at a young age in the nineties by landing a gig in Glenroe. She since acted in many stage productions from the Abbey to Prime Cut to the Donmar Warehouse in London as well as TV and film.
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Bob O’Mahoney is the centre of this show. He has been away from the stage for some years. He has a deep resonant voice and the ability to bring great clarity and intention to the text. He was six when he saw Laurence Olivier, his hero, in the film version of Richard III. After that, Bob went on to drama school and then Bristol Rep where he acted with people like Pete Postlethwaite and Daniel Day-Lewis. He went on to appear at the RSC and the West End before settling in Dublin in 1990. Bob drives the show. He is the heart of it. It is a performance worth experiencing.
Mespil In The Dark Live is a very accessible demonstration of what it is to try and create a play, as well as the reality of living a life as a theatrical artist. It is a show for anybody who has ever loved or hated theatre. It is about the hell of theatre and repetition of rehearsal. The theatre trap.
Mespil In The Dark Live runs from Tuesday 6th - Saturday 10th September (with a preview on Monday 5th September) at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin - find out more here.
