John Byrne meets up with Roisin Gallagher and Adam Richardson, who star in new dramedy series The Dry, which begins this Wednesday on RTÉ One
I'm in the boardroom of the Element Pictures office in Dublin, admiring Oscars and many other awards won by the production company behind the likes of Lenny Abrahamson’s Normal People, films such as Adam and Paul, The Guard and What Richard Did, and co-productions Room, The Favourite and The Lobster.
They know their apples here. Which is a good sign for any project they greenlight.
I’m here to meet up with members of the cast of The Dry, a seven-part dramedy series that lands on RTÉ One on Wednesday, with all episodes available on the RTÉ Player. It's written by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Nancy Harris (Our New Girl, Dates) and directed by acclaimed director Paddy Breathnach (Rosie, Viva).
Belfast actress Roisin Gallagher (The Fall, Nowhere Special) stars as Shiv Sheridan, a thirtysomething who returns to her native south county Dublin after years of partying in London.
She’s several months sober and full of good intentions - hence the title, The Dry - but being back with her family makes staying off the sauce much harder than she expected.
As Shiv tries to navigate this new phase of her life, so must her family . . . and unfortunately for everyone involved they all have issues they don’t want to face. So, yep, they’re pretty much the same as the rest of us.
First up for a chat are Roisin and Adam Richardson. The latter’s a twentysomething Dubliner whose acting career is on the rise. Here, he plays Shiv’s younger brother, the rather reckless Ant. He’s in his mid-20s but still lives at home with his folks, dad Tom and mam Bernie, played by Ciaran Hinds and Pom Boyd.
Also featured are Moe Dunford as Shiv’s ex, Jack, and Siobhán Cullen as her sister Caroline. It's a pretty impressive cast and a testament to the talent on this little rock on the edge of Europe.
First up, I ask Roisin to sum up her character and why she’s heading home after years in London. She smiles and gets right to the point . . .
Roisin Gallagher: "I guess there comes a time in everybody’s life where you realise you’ve got no job, no money, no flat, no boyfriend, no prospects - and you think, 'I’m going to have to go home’.
"And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that she’s an alcoholic and started a journey of recovery. So yeah, it was Aer Lingus, home, and essentially tail between the legs. I think in the brilliant way that [writer] Nancy does, she wrote it in such a way that we don’t know that yet. There’s a real untangling throughout the episodes of her need to be at home. And why that is."
John Byrne: What was it about the script that caught your imagination?
"It was really funny. It just made me laugh. I recognised the conversations. The very first scene I read was the one between Shiv and Caroline in the car about the CBS disco, and I just saw me and one of my sisters having a conversation.
"Whenever I get a script, I always go first to what I relate and there was just so much in the writing that it felt like I already knew and it felt like there was a sense of belonging to this place - not the place of south county Dublin - but just a belonging in this world. That’s what made it very exciting."
Alcoholism may be the central problem, but addiction in general is a problem in Ireland . . .
"I think maybe not just in this country, nobody has to look too far to know someone, or know someone who knows someone whose life is effected by addiction. In lots of different ways. I think Instagram is one of them for a lot of people. And I think what The Dry does is that the reality of it. Shiv doesn’t look the way that we think alcoholics look like or behave. That’s been one of the really successful things about it."
And there’s that part of the Irish psyche, where we use humorous ways to couch very serious and often quite intense moments in our lives . . .
"I don’t think it was any surprise that the first episode was set at a wake. And all this laughter being shared over a dead body. Many family funerals are the craic! And that’s alive in the writing, it’s alive in the way [director] Paddy Breathnach has brought the scenes on screen."
"It’s alive between the cast, with our shared cultural humour. A dark humour that allows us to really explore the rawness of the grief, and the addiction, and the vulnerability of these characters. Not just Shiv - the whole family. They all have their baggage."
What about Ant’s baggage Adam? He’s got his own story to tell . . .
Adam Richardson: "I think Ant is like a lot of millennials. He’s just trying to get by - especially in south county Dublin. It’s something I can relate to. Most people my age or Ant’s age has some sort of, y’know, difficulty in claiming their own space at home.
"And I think Ant’s in a better position than most because he is based in South County Dublin, he may have a bit more money, and the fact that there’s space in the back garden for him to have his shed. That’s his solution, being a millennial trying to find a home, and with everything else going on.
"But I think that he’s just a 25-year-old guy - I know some people might not think he’s a nice guy - but he’s just trying his absolute best to put on a brave face and just keep going. He’s gone to college, he’s done everything by the book, yet he’s still struggling to move on."
The Dry, 9.35pm, Wednesday, RTÉ One
All episodes will be available from Wednesday on the RTÉ Player
