Are you there Garth ? - Programme

STARRING

C0 STARRING

WRITTEN BY

DIRECTED BY

DEIRDRE O’KANE MACLEAN BURKE FIONA LOONEY PADRAIC MCINTYRE FROM

TO

TUES 13 OCT SUN 25 OCT TH

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are you there garth

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presented by

Pat Egan

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fiona looney

credits Margaret: Deirdre O’Kane

writer

Man One: Maclean Burke Man Two: Jonathan White

so here’s how this thing happened

Man Three: Stephen Jones I was on holidays in Spain last July when my phone buzzed with a text from my brother.

His apoplexy practically leaped off the screen: the Garth Brooks concerts were in doubt.

What immediately intrigued me was the fact that my brother is not a Garth Brooks fan, nor had he any intention of going to any of the concerts. To be honest, he rarely troubles Croke Park at all. But in that short text message, he managed to capture the burgeoning state of national hysteria that was building over these ill-starred concerts.

Over the next fortnight - with a fascination and detachment only made possible by my standing outside the fire, as it were, I watched Garth-gate grow on social media and in news reports to the point where Irish media sources were talking of nothing else.

When the bubble finally burst – along with the hopes of 400,000 people – I saw a missed call on my phone from Darren Smith, with whom

Note from

I had worked on Dustin The Turkey’s movie and who had produced Anglo: The Musical. I didn’t need to call him back. “Garth Brooks?”, I texted. Half an hour, a phone call and an Amazon purchase later, I was reading Judy Blume’s seminal coming of age book, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. The rest, really, was already history.

Some people find it embarrassing that while other nations storm the streets over political corruption and economic austerity, we Irish only ever get really hot and bothered about truly divisive issues like World Cup training facilities and Garth Brooks concerts.

Personally, I think it’s one of our most fascinating and endearing qualities. And to borrow from a footballer of an earlier generation, at least in Ireland, we understand that country and western music is not a matter of life and death. Sometimes, it’s more important than that.

Director: Padraic McIntyre Stage Manager: Margarita Corscadden Production Manager: Marie Tierney Lighting Design: Conleth White Sound Design: Cormac Carroll Assistant Stage Manager: Sarah Purcell Aoife O’Sullivan Set and Costume Designer: Kate Moylan Scenic Artists: Lisa Krugel and Paula Tierney Transport: Jason Begg Coogans & Trevor Price

Ross O’Carroll Kelly

Gorth and me. It’s complicated. Let me explain. Sallynoggin, I think it’s fair to say, was my old dear’s Vietnam. We spent six years living there in the late 1980s and early 1990s and, whenever that period is mentioned now, she stares off into the distance, her eyes unblinking, her big trout lips quivering at the memory. It wasn’t the women in leggings that traumatized her the most. It wasn’t the coal lorries or the ice cream vans that used to drive around the estate selling their wares. It wasn’t even the drive-by shootings that happened on a pretty much weekly basis.

It was the line dancing.

I’ll never forget the day I arrived home from school to find the old dear hiding behind the sofa with every set of curtains in the house drawn.

“Ross,” she went, “thank God you’re safe!”

I was like, “Safe? What’s going?”

“That woman next door – I don’t even know her name.”

“It’s Sylvia.”

“I have no interest in what she calls herself. I saw her going out earlier and she

Intern: Aoife Breathnach

was wearing – oh, I can barely bring myself to say it – a cowboy hat!”

“Have you been drinking? Seriously, if I lit a match in here, you’d burn like a focking Iraqi oil well.”

“No, I have not been drinking. I know what I saw, Ross. Not only a cowboy hat, but cowboy boots as well – and a plaid shirt! I mean, have you ever heard the like of it?”

“Why don’t you keep your enormous, misshapen hooter out of other people’s business, you decrepit, old slag-wagon?”

“Well, it is my business, if people are going to start parading around in front of the house dressed like Calamity bloody Jane. Do you have any idea how much something like that could knock off the value of the house? So I went out to her.”

“Sylvia?”

“If that’s what she’s called, yes. I said, ‘Why are you going out like that – dressed for a bloody gunfight?’ And do you know what she said?”

“I’m very much struggling to give a fock at this precise moment in time.”

“I’m quoting her word for word, Ross. She said, ‘I’m going…line-dancing!’” are you there garth are you there garth

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“Line-dancing? Yeah, no, I’ve heard of that.

People have gone mad into it.”

“She said to me, ‘Are you not a Gorth Brooks fan?’ Except she pronounced it Geert Barrukes. Well, I called the Gords straight away. They claimed there was nothing they could do!”

“You called the Feds?”

“It’s the thin end of the wedge, Ross. Mork my words – the thin end of the wedge.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong. That year – I’m pretty sure it was 1992 – Gorthmania hit Sallynoggin in a major way. I’ve honestly never seen so many Stetsons in my life.

It was like the O.K. Corral. Or a funeral in Leitrim.

We moved out of the gaff before the summer was over. The old pair didn’t even bother selling it. They just abandoned it, presuming that no one would pay actual money to live in such a place.

A week later, we moved to Foxrock. I suppose you could say that the dude changed my life.

deirdre o’kane

Deirdre recently appeared in the leading role of Debra Moone in her third series of Moone Boy, opposite Academy Award Nominee Peter McDonald and Chris O Dowd (who also co-wrote the series for Steve Coogan’s Baby Cow Productions and Sky TV) and for which she was nominated for an IFTA in 2014 (her fifth IFTA nomination). Deirdre has just been awarded the Best Lead Actress in a Film IFTA for 2015 for her role as Christina Noble opposite Liam Cunningham, Sarah Greene

and Brendan Coyle in Stephen Bradley’s feature NOBLE which was released in September 2014 and has already won Jury and Audience awards at the Boston Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Newport Beach Festival, Nashville and Dallas Festivals. NOBLE is currently on general release in the USA and will release in almost 100 screens in France later this month. Deirdre most recently appeared as Rosemary in Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley at the Theatre Royal, Bath, directed by Sam Yates. She will soon appear opposite Robert Sheehan in David Blair’s independent feature film The Messenger which is due for release in 2015.

One of Ireland’s best known stand up comedians, Deirdre hosted and co-wrote the 10 part series The Lounge for RTE/ BBC. She also released twoDVD’s of her stand up performances through EMI. Her many theatre credits include Mary in Juno

and the Paycock (The Abbey Theatre), Miss Funny in At the Black Pig’s Dyke (Druid Theatre) Daphne in Present Laughter (Gate Theatre), Jean in two sold-out runs of Dandelions at the Gaiety Theatre and in Greener at the same theatre, both for Landmark Productions, and her acclaimed performance in the one woman show My Brilliant Divorce (Druid).

Television credits include Paths to Freedom (RTE) in which she played Brendan Coyle’s long-suffering wife Helen, The Clinic, Fergus’s Wedding, The Fitz, Bittersweet and all 3 series of Moone Boy. Her feature film credits include the BAFTA winning Festival for Channel 4, Intermission, directed by John Crowley for Parallel Fims, Killing Bono, directed by Nick Hamm for Cinema Three and Dollhouse, directed by Kirsten Sheridan for Factory Films.

maclean burke Maclean is best known for playing Damien Halpin in RTE soap ‘Fair City’ since 1998. He began acting at a very young age and has appeared in not one, but two defining movies of the last two decades. ‘In The Name of The Father’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Other film/t.v credits include ‘The Front Line’ & ‘Rough Diamond’. With his boundless energy and infectious personality, Maclean has been a popular choice for various celebrity reality shows. Titles include ‘Celebrity You’re a Star’ (RTE) and ‘No Frontiers’ (RTE). ‘Lord of the Rings’ & ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ (TV3), Soap award nominations have included ‘IFTA Best Soap Couple’, ‘IFTA Best Male Soap

Star’ and ‘Best Soap Family’. Most recently Maclean toured in the critically acclaimed one man show Joe Prop in association with Barnardos.

Maclean has recently been cast in the lead role of Bill in the new CBBC series Little Roy. He is delighted to be part of this very exciting production and is looking forward to finally bringing Garth back to Ireland.

Maclean is represented by Julian Benson Management.

stephen jones Stephen is from Tallaght and is a graduate of UCD. Theatre credits include: The Bloody Irish: Songs of Irish Freedom (The Helix. A new musical filmed live for U.S television station PBS), The lead role of Keano in I, Keano (Olympia Theatre), Stones in his Pockets (Gaiety Theatre, Irish & UK

Tour), Conversations on a Homecoming and A Whistle in the Dark (Druid Theatre Company, DruidMurphy: Plays by Tom Murphy, Irish Tour), Alone it Stands (Verdant Productions, Irish Tour/Barbican UK), Dubliners (The Corn Exchange, Dublin Theatre Festival), The King’s Feet (ChalkTalk Theatre Company, Dublin Fringe Festival), Sizwe Bansi is Dead (Camino de Orula Productions). Other Theatre includes Danny and Chantelle: Still Here, Squat, Romeo and Juliet, No Irish No Blacks No Dogs, Spider, Candy Flippin’ Butterflies, From the Shannon to the Somme, This Lime Tree Bower, 100 More Like These, Wanted: The Legendary Stone Mountain Band, Portia Coughlan and Black Snow. are you there garth are you there garth

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Film and Television credits include: Between the Canals, King of the Travellers, Stalker, Scratch, Ripper Street, Amber, Damo & Ivor, Pheasant Island and Love/ Hate. Stephen will appear on Red Rock later this year.

Radio credits include: Memento Mori, April Showers and Serenity (All for RTE Drama on One) and Dubliners.

Stephen’s play A Certain Romance was a Druid Theatre Company Debut. His online web series The Goo (@thegoo2014) can be seen on YouTube. His new play From Eden will premiere in Theatre Upstairs at Lanigans later this year.

jonathan white Jonathan was born in Dublin, grew up in New York and while still a student at TCD, began his acting career in Borstal Boy here at the Gaiety. His theatre work since includes Anglo: The Musical (BGET & Olympia) No Escape, The Comedy of Errors, Ladybag, The Quare Fellow and Imeachtaí na Saoirse (Abbey) The Life of Galileo, I Can’t Get Started, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Our Country’s Good, Serious Money, No End of Blame and Victory (Rough Magic) Richard II, Mutabilitie and Amadeus (Theatreworks/Ouroboros) Comedians (Bickerstaffe) Massive Damages (Passion Machine) and The Merchant of Venice, Othello,

writer

King Lear, Hamlet and As You Like It (Second Age). Films include Traders, Noble, Happy Ever Afters, Cracks, Veronica Guerin and When Brendan Met Trudy. Television credits include Ripper Street, Titanic: Blood & Steel, Betrayal of Trust, Honeymoon for One, Wild Decembers, Whistleblower, The Tudors, On Home Ground, The Ambassador, Nighthawks, A Song for Europe and Father Ted. Radio includes Scrap Saturday and The Monica Moody Show as well as over 100 plays and series.

fiona looney

Are You There Garth? It’s Me, Margaret is Fiona Looney’s fifth stage play. She previously enjoyed commercial and critical success with Dandelions (Olympia Theatre, Dublin and Cork Opera House, 2005 and 2006), October (Olympia Theatre, Dublin and Cork Opera House, 2009), Nuts and Bolts (Bewley’s Theatre, Dublin 2011 and Viking Theatre, Dublin 2012) and Greener (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin 2012).

She has also written three pantomimes (Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 2011 – 2013).

Her television writing credits include The

Fast Show (BBC1), No Limits (Sky One), Callan Kicks (RTE1) and the television play, Pheasant Island (RTE1).

For radio, she has written two plays, Golf Widows (RTE, 2002) and Bombshell (RTE, 2014), which was shortlisted for both the PJ O’Connor Award and the BBC International Playwrighting Award. Other radio writing credits include two series of The Monica Moody Show, four series of Callan’s Kicks, two series of Backchat and more than 2,000 nightly reflections, as Amelia Golightly, all for RTE.

In film, she wrote Dustin’s Fowl Play for Warner Bros.

She writes weekly columns in both The Irish Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

padraic mcintyre

director

Padraic is a native of Bailieboro, Co. Cavan and trained as an actor at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He has an MA in Theatre Studies from DCU. Padraic is Artistic Director of Livin’ Dred Theatre Company, based in The Ramor Theatre in Virginia. He has directed their first seventeen productions, including The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Belfry, (both of which were nominated for Irish Times Theatre Awards) The Tale of the Blue Eyed Cat, The Snow Child and The Little Dance Girl, which he wrote for the company. In 2007, he directed The Tinkers Curse by Michael Harding which was nominated for an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play and Conversations on a Homecoming for Livin’ Dred/NOMAD which was nominated for The Judges Special Award. He has also directed The Children of Lir, Shoot the Crow, A Christmas Carol, The Good Father and There Came a Gypsy Riding and Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (both by Frank McGuiness) and Ride On by Seamus O’Rourke and The Bridge Below the Town by Pat McCabe with whom he has developed a close working relationship.

Livin Dred/NOMAD’s production of The Dead School by Pat McCabe was regarded as one of the theatrical highlights of 2008 and was nominated for three Irish Times Theatre Awards including Best Production.

It completed a three-week sell-out run at The Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival in September 2009 and the Tricycle Theatre, London in 2010.

He has worked as an actor throughout the UK and Ireland. Recent theatre as an actor includes: Emerald Germs by Pat McCabe, A Night in November by Marie Jones (Ramor Theatre), The Ballad of Pat McNab by Pat McCabe (Livin Dred Theatre Co.), Talking to Terrorists (Calypso Productions), The Green Fool (UpState Theatre Company, National Tours), Two Houses (Upstate Theatre Company), Winter Came Down (Quare Hawks Theatre Company), Howie the Rookie (Library Theatre, Manchester), Shagnasty & Duck (Guilded Balloon, Edinburgh), Loves Labours Lost (English Touring Theatre, National Tour), Big Maggie (New Vic Theatre), A Skull in Connemara (Rocket Theatre, Manchester) and The Ballad of Pat McNab by Pat McCabe (Livin Dred Theatre Co.). He has appeared in are you there garth are you there garth

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LOVE/HATE and the feature film ‘The Ballad of Honky McSwaine’, and most recently in RTE’s CHARLIE. Writing Credits include: The Little Dance Girl (Livin Dred), Carnival at Glenaduff (Ramor Players), Going and Letting Everyone Down (Caomhnu Literary Festival), The Voice (Roscommon Youth Theatre), A Holy Show (Ramor Players), The King of Ireland’s Son (Aishling Children’s Festival), The Lost Weekend (Ramor Players), Cuckoo Connolly’s Curious Clock Shop (Ramor Theatre) and Hero of the Half Acre (Ramor Players).

The Night Joe Dolan’s Car Broke Down (Glenaduff Productions) has been a hugh hit in theatres around the country, selling out five runs in The Olympia Theatre, Dublin and returns once again in February 2016.

Padraic recently directed The Field by John B. Keane at The Gaeity Theatre in Dublin.

rehearsal

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photos

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Photo Credit: Virtuoso Fotografia

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set & costume design

kate moylan

Kate Moylan graduated on a Masters scholarship for Theatre Design at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her most recent theatre and film work includes: Costume Design ‘The Field’ 50th Anniversary Performance, Lane Productions, The Gaiety Theatre ‘Stones in his Pockets’, Lane Productions, The Gaiety Theatre ‘Dreamland’, Project Arts Centre ‘Assassins The Musical’, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Project Arts Centre ‘The Critic’, Associate Costume Designer, Rough Magic Theatre Company, Dublin Theatre Festival ‘Anglo the Musical’, Associate Costume Designer, Bord Gais Energy Theatre ‘Beyond the Brooklyn Sky’, Dublin Theatre Festival Set Design ‘Sanctuary’, Derry Playhouse ‘The Circus of Perseverance’, Smock Alley Set and Costume Design ‘A Galway Girl’. Galway Arts Festival ‘The Burial at Thebes”, Millennium Forum Derry ‘Pilgrim’, The Gonzo Theatre, Smockalley Theatre ‘Wexford Opera House Christmas Show ‘, Wexford Opera House ‘On the Subject of Love’, Derry Playhouse

Theatre ‘Our Country’s Good’ The Richard Burton Theatre, Wales Film Production Design ‘Rockmount’, An Irish Film Board Short WINNER OF THE TIERNAN MCGRIDE BEST SHORT FILM GALWAY FILM FLEADH 2014 & BEST SHORT AT THE IRISH FILM AND TELEVISON AWARDS 2015

credits Costume Assistant: Jennifer Dwyer Wardrobe Assistant: Karen O’ Mahony

‘Man On Bridge’ An RTE Documentary Film Production & Costume Design ‘Zephra’, A Filmbase & RTE Short Film WINNER OF BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN PORTSMOUTH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2014 Music Video Production & Costume Design ‘8 Good Reasons’, Sinead O Conor Music Video ‘All The Others’, The Coronas, Music Video ‘Shake Me Off’ & ‘Coming On’, The Hot Sprockets, Music Video

producer/co-creater

darren smith

sound design

cormac carroll Cormac is a native of Sligo.

During his time in the Sound Dept of The Abbey Theatre he designed for many of the Abbey’s major productions including, Eden, The Plough and the Stars, The Gigli Concert, Defender of the Faith, Heavenly Bodies, What Happened to Bridgie Cleary, Bailegangaire, The Guys and Hamlet (Co-producted by The Abbey Theatre and The Lyric Theatre Belfast.).

Other companies Cormac has worked with include, Rough Magic, Fishamble The New Play Company, Liz Roche Dance Co, Happy Days Beckett festival. Cormac has worked with Livin’ Dread Theatre Company on There Came a Gipsy Riding, The Good Father, Shoot the Crow & Emerald Gems. Cormac also designed sound for Nomad Theatre Networks productions of “The Dead School” and “Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme.”

Cormac designed Lights and Sound for the long running hit “The Night Joe Dolan’s Car Broke Down” and is regularly on the road with “Gay Byrne Live on Stage”. are you there garth are you there garth

Through Kite Entertainment Darren Smith has made lots of television programmes, co-written Dustin The Turkey’s hauntingly beautiful Irlande Douze Pointe (which came 14th in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest semi final in Belgrade) and co-created ANGLO: The Musical.

In the early 90’s Darren bought Garth Brooks his first Eddie Rockets and he was once in a bus with Garth that got a police escort to Bray. He has tried hard not to let any of these events go to his head.

Future projects include Copper Face Jacks: The Opera by Paul Howard, a kids animation series called Coco The Accountant and a weekend in London with his beautiful wife Rachel and their beyond beautiful daughter Juliet (AKA The Goose).

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promoter

pat egan

Pat Egan is one of Ireland’s pioneering Rock Promoters. Queen, Bob Marley, Elton John, Eric Clapton are just a few of the many acts Pat brought to Ireland in the 80s and 90s. Pirate Radio DJ, record store owner, night club operator and more recently theatre producer: The Pillowman, A Skull in Connemara, The Olympia Panto and more. Pat recently ran the Proms on the Pier concerts with his son David at Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

producer

brian hand

Brian Hand has spent most of his life avoiding real work and lurking in the shadows of the music business. Son of the impresario Jim Hand, Brian started by booking gigs for the likes of The Fureys & Davy Arthur, Paddy Reilly & The Dubliners, who he has been closely associated with for over 25 years. He is currently a doting dad to his first son, Xander, and a guitar playing husband to the long-suffering Michele.

Owners - Caroline Downey & Denis Desmond Managing Director - Caroline Downney Theatre Manager - Alan McQuillan Duty House & Bar Manager - Carol Patridge Front of House Duty Manager - Donagh O’Mahony Financial Controller - Frank Desmond Senior Bookeeper - Teresa Flannery Technical Director - Mathew Cregan Technical Manager - Daniel Egan Theatre Technician - Grainne Farrell Stage Manager - Pawel Nieworj Housekeeping Manager - Mary Healy Marketing Consultants Justin Green & Grainne McNeill - Wide Awake Communications

THE DANCE, written by Tony Arata, used by kind permission of Warner Chappell Music Ltd. are you there garth are you there garth

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