ART AND THEATRE REVIEWS: The Sheare Street Social Club
We were
delighted with Liam Murphy, the theatre critic’s review of Jim Cullinane’s
play, ‘The Sheare Street Social Club.’ It went as follows: ‘There has been a renewed
interest in social history and keeping aspects of community life to the fore in
historical and social commemoration. In
the early days of Red Kettle Theatre, Jim Nolan, set several plays in the heart
of Waterford memory as did Wexford's Billy Roach with his Wexford trilogy. Waterford Youth Arts with Waterford Council
funding have produced a series of social history reminiscences. In Dungarvan, Waterford County Museum to
support an archaeology project of excavation at Gallowshill, staged a
'dramatised read' or a rehearsed reading using local actors and adding mixed
media of original songs and music from Donal Power. John Power, the filmmaker, provided a set of
video inserts to link the story of the Men's Social Club in Sheare Street
Abbeyside in the late Fifties. These
inserts cut back and forth linking 'static' stage settings to a farewell drink
in a local bar where sausages and brown bread were the 'nibbles'.
Written by James
G Cullinane, it used a fictional drama with seven actors seated at a rehearsal
table to reflect the grey Fifties with the lack of jobs or prospects, the hope
of emigration in a story of friendship and hardship. Of its nature, it had to show the demise and
moving away of several characters, and this caused a repetition that did not
serve the drama all that well. But the
audience loved the interaction, the banter, the crude chauvinistic language,
the broad humour, and the hopes, secrets and revelations.
Experienced
actors like Pat Power and Aaron Cowming contributed much to the veracity of the
presentation, and Raymond Tobin-Walsh was a revelation in a serious role where
he embodied a boastful, cynical commentary on women and life. Ollie Kiely was excellent as the reflective
Gusty. Other parts were played by Michael O'Mahony, Mark O'Rourke, Michael
Drummy, with Martin Landers and Brian O'Connell in filmed inserts. Deirdre Collender directed with an assured
control, and a respect for the social and emotional aspect. I hope this play will get support from the Decade
of Commemorations or the Waterford Council. It could with the addition of a brass band
become a moving feast of memory involving actors and re-enactors. It could also be made into a half-hour
television feature.’
Watch this space for those of you who missed
the play!!!.