Documentary maker Michael-David McKernan writes for Culture about this week's RTÉ Documentary on One production – listen above to "Act 5, Scene 2"
In June 2012 I sat my Leaving Certificate exams, with Hamlet being the Shakespeare play on the English syllabus. The year previous my English teacher, Ms. Patton, brought us to the Helix to see a production of Hamlet.
The cast were ferociously committed, and the staging was vibrant. It was my first introduction to live Shakespeare, and it left a lasting memory as I then went on to study Drama & Theatre Studies at Trinity College.
But one of the most memorable moments from that evening came pre-show when we learned that the actor playing Hamlet would be performing with a script-in-hand, having only joined the cast recently. The actor originally cast as Hamlet, Conor Madden, had suffered an injury on-stage a few weeks prior to this.
Credit: Anthony Woods
Fast-forward about 10 years, to August 2021, and I'm sitting across from Conor in Co. Clare chatting about the prospect of making a documentary about the accident, the life-changing injuries he suffered, and his remarkable recovery. He lives here with his wife and their young daughter. He is rooted in this area now, and seems at peace with his life, but it has been a long road to get to this point.
Ten years ago, his life was on a different trajectory. He was an up-and-coming actor, "one of the stand-out talents" as his friend and colleague Aonghus Óg MacAnally says.
That year that I was doing my Leaving Cert, Conor and Aonghus were cast alongside each other as Hamlet and Laertes, in a version of the show that would be performed to Leaving Cert. students all over the country.
Their first performance was in The Helix in Dublin and the show then moved to Cork, to the Everyman Palace Theatre. I travelled to the Everyman Theatre during the recording of this documentary and saw for myself that the stage was significantly smaller in the Everyman.
In theatre, the protocol is to carry out technical rehearsals before performances – and this is especially important when the show moves to a new theatre, and when there are fight scenes.
The big fight scene in Hamlet is in the final scene, Act 5,Scene 2. In this scene, Conor and Aonghus – as Hamlet and Laertes – staged a highly-choreographed sword fight.
In this particular performance in Cork, the fight rehearsal did not happen, and it was during this scene that Conor was stabbed, just below his eye. The watching audience thought that it was part of the show, but this was the moment when the course of Conor's life changed.
I learned about Conor’s story when I started working as an actor in Dublin. Having met him, his story is even more extraordinary than I first thought - his determination and resilience to recover from such a trauma, and to return to the stage again, is inspiring.
RTÉ Documentary on One: Act 5, Scene 2, airs on RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 16th September 2023 at 2pm - listen to more from Documentary On One here.
