A STANDING ovation for a lunchtime show might be unusual but not at Dundalk Drama International. The Mama Larissa Puppet Company a discovery of Maytime Festival president, Brendan Vatters, on a trip to Russia performed their production of The Gentle Giant, after Oscar Wilde, which succeeded in stunning audiences at Watters's lunchtime theatre.
Meanwhile, Paul McArdle, a new Dundalk playwright, was the author of the well constructed and totally absorbing Occurrence at Wild Goose Lodge, set a few miles from Dundalk, and performed by the Dundalk Theatre Workshop. The audience shuddered when told that the hangings they had learned about had actually taken place right where they sat. With a little editing and imaginative lighting replacing some of the set changes, this could become an important work. The production, which had a huge local input, won the Audience Award, as well as the awards for Best Lighting (Michael Parks), Best Actor (Carl McGahon), Best Supporting Actress (Nonie Belton) and four Certificates of Merit (Roisin Cox, Tony De Barra, Deirdre Rice and Paul McGee).
I reviewed all but one of the Irish plays which were on the programmes of both festivals on the festival programme when they were presented at Athlone recently. The exception, The Last Apache Reunion (performed by Puddle Alley Theatre, Strabane) resulted in the guests guest participants from abroad asking for Bernard Farrell's address.
The Whales of August by David Berry, performed by Theatre Mwlan Dyfed, Vales, was a gentle piece, but gentleness can lead to dreariness if pace is unsatisfactory and depth of character is not explored. Two elderly sisters, one blind, reminisce at their seaside cottage. Their conversations are interrupted by a male and female friend and a handyman. The Welsh players were competent and their set good, but the production failed to achieve the tension required to make this piece work.
In Stephen Metcalfe's Strange Snow, performed by Muskogee Little Theatre, Oklahoma, a Vietnam veteran (Megs) calls on another (David) to go fishing. David's sister, Martha, develops a relationship with Megs and they both try and help David forget his war experience. Cary Pruitt and Lisa Wilson gave spirited performances as the devil may care angler and the high school teacher. Jim Cole was fine in his emotional scenes, but needed a little more projection in subdued moments. This was one of the most entertaining American productions Dundalk has hosted.
Tel Aviv Community Theatre presented Friedriech Durrenmatt's 1962 comedy The Physicists. Its theme, rival intelligence agents of Fast and West posing as madmen to gain access to secret information, is dated. The group did not achieve the full comedy potential of the piece, but there was some impressive well motivated direction and fine acting John Godber's September in the Rain, about a couple at the seaside, is a slight souffle, but in the capable hands of Tryst Falkirk's Carol Clark and Jim Allan both accomplished actors and mime artists it provided an immensely enjoyable evening and won the couple the Adjudicator's Award. Their big dipper ride alone was worth seeing. Bringing the audience along with the aid of little more than two chairs takes skill, and Falkirk had enough of it to win the Harp Lager Premier Award and Best Director Award (Bill Graham) as well.
The other Awards were Best Set Design and Best Costume Design Kilmeen Drama Group (Dancing at Lughnasa) Best Young Actor Jonathan McCosker (The Last Apache Reunion). Certificates of Merit Dawn Nadel (The Physicists) Eileen McGarrigle (The Last Apache Reunion).
