At the first gig after the Apocalypse…. would you place your fate in the hands of a three-piece folk band?
Writer and performer Fionn Foley introduces his acclaimed comedy musical Tonic, which returns to Irish stages for dates at the Theatre Royal, Waterford, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin and Backstage, Longford over the coming weeks.
'Well, it's kind of a reinvention of the old medicine show' I repeat to a blank expression every time I explain my musical Tonic.
'Tell me more,’ says you.
Gladly, says I.
Let me take you back to a time before Etsy used your internet search history to flog you the exact kind of Panama hat you’d been thinking about buying or nauseating re-workings of a 80s power ballads crooned to you the benefits of toilet de-scaler.
In 19th Century Paris, or perhaps more notably on the American Wild Frontier, ‘medicine shows’ were highly engaging street performances given by travelling ‘salesmen’ offering a ‘miracle cure’ for various ailments which were usually, if not always, totally ineffective. Their spectacular theatricality and well-rehearsed spiels were perhaps more manipulative (and successful) than any contemporary marketing campaign.
I had the idea to put together a ‘medicine show’ as a contemporary musical while at the Edinburgh Fringe with my solo show Brendan Galileo for Europe in 2019. The more I researched the concept, the more I fell in love with the dark humour of the form. They were hugely colourful affairs, accompanied by instrumentation from a hurdy-gurdy, banjo or double bass.
A strong connection and rapport with the audience was essential, along with a shrewd knowledge of local trivia and gossip. But paramount was the performance’s ability to play on the audience's fears and anxieties. What at first glance might have seemed like a whimsical musical revue had a highly orchestrated motive embedded within it. To pedal bollocks.
That particular era of con-men and shysters may be long gone but if anything, the atmosphere of fear and and uncertainty in which they thrived has never been more prevalent.
Tonic sees Cal Calibri & the Calibri Triplet Family Band offer a ‘miracle elixir’ for a medley of maladies in a post-apocalyptic Ireland, with all the same spectacular theatricality of the slippery charlatans on which it’s based.
I know I talked a lot about historical nuance and thematic pertinence just there but it's a rapturously high-spirited show, with all the charm and pageantry you could hope for from a doomsday folk musical. And I’m in it.
Tonic is at Theatre Royal, Waterford on 5th April, Smock Alley, Dublin on 8th April and at Backstage, Longford on 13th April - find out more here.
