On Sunday 7th September, Drama On One will broadcast the radio version of Fishamble's hit stage play Heaven by Eugene O'Brien, directed by Jim Culleton and featuring original cast members Andrew Bennett and Janet Moran - listen to Heaven above.
The multi award-winning play is set in the Irish midlands, during the weekend of a local wedding, as Mairead and Mal are struggling to keep their own marriage together. Below, Eugene describes how he compiled a guest list of characters for an unforgettable wedding party...
Heaven started life at a kitchen table during the first lockdown… there was nothing else to do but write! I wanted to write something about my hometown. I had written a play (Eden) and a TV show (Pure Mule) set there but a few years had passed and I felt it was time to revisit the midlands.
My brother had taken me around my home town the previous year to show me the state of the place, of whole roads still derelict since the crash, and this sparked something about a character back home for a wedding. I began by just blindly writing, with very little plan, the character of Mairead; a tearaway in her youth from a unhappy home, although very bright, she wasn't suited to the school system so came to education late and now works as a social worker. She is back in her hometown for the wedding of her sister, and the night before she meets an old flame and is attracted to him again. I knew she was married. So what would her husband be like?
It's about fantasies and realities and escape and dreams and regret.
As writers we have dead characters lying around that were discarded from things, or were in things that never saw the light of day. One of these characters came back to life to inspire Mal, the repressed gay married man who yearns for a younger man at the wedding. So that was it: two characters, two objectives…. And a wedding, always a brilliant place to set a drama. Everybody knows the rules and ritual of it. The long day of drinking, the speeches, the dancing, the New York New York and the fights. It allowed me to paint a portrait of a entire community of crazy cousins and relations, like best man The Hobbit - named on account of his huge feet - and Joan from the meat factory with a heart as big as her a**e!
But this play is about the deepest desires and intimate inner thoughts of both Mal and Mairead. It’s about what happens when we can’t talk to our partner about them, and what lies underneath. It’s about fantasies and realities and escape and dreams and regret. It’s a play inspired by my own life of finding love in my fifties. From day one, Heaven was a joy to do with the brilliant Fishamble Theatre Company and director Jim Culleton. We have had many great memories along the way, including Irish Times Theatre Awards for Best Play and Actress and a Fringe First in Edinburgh. But it was how the piece really seemed to connect with audiences which was the real joy. Janet Moran and Andrew Bennett embodied the characters with an energy and spirit that never failed to delight and surprise me. And this radio version is a perfect medium for their very private confessions. It is worth listening to for their brilliant performances alone.
RTÉ Drama On One: Heaven, Sunday, Sept 7th at 8pm - listen to more from Drama On One here
