Justine Doswell as The Morrígan - photo by Futoshi Sakauchi
Caoimhe Mulcahy, Garrett Lombard and Denis Conway - photo Futoshi Sakauchi
|
Caoimhe Mulcahy as Aisling. Garrett Lombard as The Ghost of CúChulainn and Denis Conway as The Caretaker - photo Futoshi Sakauchi
Garrett Lombard as The Ghost of CúChulainn - photo Futoshi Sakauchi
| ||||||||
PRESS AND REVIEWS for DUSK
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/theatre-an-irish-legend-is-reborn-with-divine-intervention-35110445.html
When Eamon Carr got his first royalties cheque as a musician with Horslips, the first thing he did was travel to Greece to see the ancient amphitheatre of Epidaurus.
Greece was under the Generals, and the least cool place in the world to visit. But this questing writer has apparently never followed the crowd. He climbed to the back row of crumbling Epidaurus, heard a bee buzz from the stage thousands of seats beneath him, and was determined to write his own version of Euripides's tragedy Alcestis, and film it right here, for Irish television. As a rave.
Alas, his Alcestis never got made.
Now, the songwriter-drummer-journalist during the Troubles who, for the Herald, has covered all of human life - from celebrity funerals to boxing and music, turning out haiku and verse plays along the way - at last has a play coming out, DUSK: A Colloquy. At age 67, it is the first play he will see produced. "It's quite thrilling obviously," says the raconteur, sitting in rehearsals for DUSK.
DUSK is written in blank verse, staged as Japanese Noh theatre, a style that invokes the supernatural through masks and dance (see obscure Yeats plays for more Noh). Carr's play imagines Cú Chulainn as a ghostly figure (Garrett Lombard) trapped in the other world when he meets a forlorn woman, Aisling (Caoimhe Mulcahy). The play is directed by the talented theatre-maker Denis Conway.
Myths, Greek or Irish, have interested Carr all his life. "There's a great repository in every society and every tribe has their mythology," he says, lowering his voice, "that has its own psychic wisdom."
From the legends he read growing up in Kells, Co Meath, Carr has kept an enduring fascination with the brave and flawed figure of Cú Chulainn.
The Horslips songs Dearg Doom, Cú Chulainn's Lament, Faster than the Hound, Time to Kill, were Carr's way of exploring Cú Chulainn. Before he wrote these songs, back in the 1960s he set up Tara Telephone, the Dublin poetry collective Seamus Heaney and Phil Lynott dipped into. Cú Chulainn was, to these young men, "the swashbuckling anti-hero". It was obvious to them why Cú Chulainn had inspired Patrick Pearse and 1916.
"There's this iconic image by Oliver Sheppard of Cú Chulainn," says Carr, "as a dying or dead man, slashed and stabbed, who binds himself to a pillar so he can die standing up. It's more Irish than the potato as a national symbol." A few years ago, Carr wrote a play called Deirdre Unforgiven. As a reporter, he had met bereaved mothers of murdered sons in the North and found parallels in the myth of Deirdre, who loses her children. It was published, but not staged. A commission to put it on in the Peacock as part of this year's Dublin Fringe fell through, "so I rummaged around," says Carr, "and I found this instead".
Carr had been writing this verse play in "dribs and drabs" over two years, thinking of the "hardmen" he met after the Omagh and Drumcree bombs who had killed several people, and of Cú Chulainn who killed his own son in battle.
"What I'd been attempting to do was to explore the concept of the divine feminine power, pitted against this iconic Irish macho man who has a reputation for incredible violence. Suddenly these two polarities sprang to life and created an alchemy."
What's divine feminine power, asks this unfeminine female. "I don't know," says Carr.
"Are we talking about Beyoncé here?"
The feminine power, he ventures, "is a greater force than the male force. It's Wicca, it's the power of the witch, of the wise woman. It's that intuitive sense. A nurturing sense. Possibly, a more caring sense. I feel the world has been fairly hammered over the centuries by warring men, and men who take that into the boardroom and into politics".
Caoimhe Mulcahy will play Aisling, and play the concertina, in one of her first stage roles. Her Aisling is due to marry the following day and is very unhappy about it. Her journey from girl to woman is "empowering", says Mulcahy. "It's very exciting exploring Aisling, figuring out what it means nowadays, and bringing my own thing as a 25-year-old woman living in Dublin - the kinds of struggles you have as a female.
"Everyone has ideas growing up about how things are going to turn out. And quite often, we let society tell us: if you do this, you'll be happy. For women, there's pressure, you have to be something."
She says the play is challenging, the language being "flowery". "It's full of imagery. That's where the challenge is, trying to bring it to life on the stage and make it theatre. Because as it is, you could just read it as poetry."
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/theatre-eamon-carrs-verse-play-uses-masks-music-song-and-dance-to-deliver-a-sweet-ritualised-meditation-on-regret-35124405.html
By Katy Hayes
Aisling, a young beautiful girl, strays away from a party on the eve of her wedding to think things over. She is disturbed in her reverie by CúChulainn, or perhaps it is his ghost. The time is non-specific – CúChulainn’s costume is Celtic, Aisling’s contemporary; the setting is a ruined tower by a lake.
Eamon Carr’s verse play uses masks, music, song and dance to deliver a sweet ritualised meditation on regret. The ghost on the stage is CúChulainn, but the ghost in the script is William Butler Yeats. CúChulainn here is not the heroic icon of the schoolchildren’s stories, but a broken old man haunted by his past deeds, in particular his unwitting slaughter of his own son. He is tormented by the Morrigan, the spirit of war embodied by dancer Justine Doswell, with a spiky Japanese tinged dance.
Director Denis Conway, who also serves as a blind caretaker, gets super performances all round. Garrett Lombard plays the Irish mythological figure with great physical theatricality; his face half-covered by a mask, his voice transformed into a gravelly echo. Caoimhe Mulcahy is stunning as Aisling in a performance that is completely natural and convincing, as she picks her way through the rhymes and stylized drama.
Yeats is not fashionable as a playwright, and Carr is brave to embrace his legacy. But this sixty minutes of rich theatrical tapestry shows what can be done with Yeats’s ingredients, when it is underpinned by pure conviction and executed with high ambition.
https://sittingonthefourthwall.wordpress.com/2016/10/15/dusk-review/
By Saoirse Anton
When one thinks of Irish myth and folklore on stage, one writer springs immediately to mind, W.B. Yeats. His plays earned their place in Irish theatre history for his lyrical writing, interpretations of the obscure and unexplored in Irish mythology, and reimagining of old well-worn tales. His legacy has evidently lived on and manifests itself in Eamon Carr’s Dusk. Telling the story of Aisling, who meets the ghost of the ancient Irish hero Cúchulain on the eve of her wedding, Dusk explores the real and mythological in Irish history. Carr’s verse writing and theatrical techniques are reminiscent of a number of Yeats ‘ works, with one particular scene in which The Morrígan (a mythological figure likened to the Valkyries of Norse folklore) dances, appearing to pay almost direct homage to At The Hawk’s Well. Drawing direct influence from such a well-known writer who has such an individual writing style is an ambitious decision, but for the most part, Carr takes on the challenge with impressive skill. There are points at which the text begins to lose pace in favour of stylistic writing (though I believe that can often be said of Yeats’ plays too!), but overall it is an engaging and well-crafted story.
Under Denis Conway’s direction, Garrett Lombard delivers an impressive performance as Cúchulain, striking the balance between ethereal and human qualities in the character, and deftly handling the dense text with gravity and intensity. It is his performance of the character that carries the show through its slow paced moments and keeps the audience engaged. There are, however, points at which Caoimhe Mulcahy (Aisling) appears to struggle with speaking in verse, breaking the flow of her character’s emotion. Similarly, the character of the Caretaker, played by Denis Conway, breaks the flow of the piece and slows its pace further, without much tangible benefit.
One of the most impressive scenes is the Morrigan’s dance, choreographed and performed by Justine Doswell. Though a short scene, it encapsulates the ethereal sense of the play effectively and further blurs the hazy lines between the real and mythological setting, and between past and present.
Worthy of mention is Katie Davenport’s set design which is actually composed largely of smoke and mirrors. With candles, a large mirror covering one wall and a dappled cloud pattern painted across it and the other two walls, the ambiguous setting is highlighted and each character’s reality is subtly represented.
Despite flaws in pacing and performance, Dusk is an engaging and interesting production, re-interpreting and challenging of the character of Cúchulain with regard to the mythological Ireland in which he existed and the Ireland which exists outside the theatre.
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2016/10/23/4128893-carr-trip-to-remember/
INTERVIEW by Jimmy Geoghegan
From globe-trotting drummer with Horslips to journalist, Kells native EAMON CARR can add playwright to his list of job descriptions. He tells he Meath Chronicle how the staging of his first stage play 'Dusk' was a terrifying experience
It would be understandable if, at times Eamon Carr stopped to wonder at the unexpected twists and turns life can take.
How, for instance, he came to be the drummer in Horslips, a band that for a decade flashed across the Irish musicial firmament like a super-bright comet fusing rock and traditional Irish music in a revolutionary way.
Later he became a journalist and had a seat at the front row of some truly momentous events including the Republic of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup campaign in Japan and the infamous Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy row.
From 1970 to 1980 Horslips produced a string of highly successful albums, played in many of the top venues in the world and even now, 46 years after they were formed, they retain a devoted following.
Reflecting back on his life so far Carr also has reason to feel a sense of wonder at how now - in his sixties - he has had one of his plays performed on stage.
Now he can, with justification, add ‘playwright’ to his list of job descriptions that includes musician, journalist and poet.
The other week he went through the nerve shredding experience
and watched as his verse play, Dusk (which has Cu Chulainn as a central character) was staged in the GPO as well as the New Theatre, Essex Street. It was a anxious, unforgettable night for the Meathman.
“I was a nervous wreck, and I was thinking until less than a year ago, last December actually, there was this script of a verse play I had written lying in a drawer, after all who is their right minds writes a verse play these days! Now here we are in October and it’s premiered in the GPO. Now, for me, that’s going to be very hard to top.”
The play - which Carr had written simply because it was something he wanted to do - is described in the publicity as a work that seeks to “explore a provocative correlation between Irish myth and contemporary reality as unseen influences, which lie beneath the surface of our everyday world, manifest themselves.”
Considering that Cu Chulainn was an inspirational figure for Padraig Pearse, and this is the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the staging of the play in the GPO was particularly significant.
Carr traces his long-held interest in Irish legend and mythology to the time when as a youngster he spent many happy hours in his grand-parents house in Lloyd outside Kells.
“My grandfather James Ginnity had a library and because he was a War of Independence man there were some very interesting stuff in his house. There was a lot of obviously political stuff and there were also a huge amount of Irish fairytales, writings that emerged from that whole Celtic Revival period when the GAA and the Abbey Theatre were starting, when there was a big Irish identity being formed, Lady Gregory and all that.”
“I became fascinated by how a legend or a mythological figure, like Cu Chulainn could have so much power and influence and I poured a lot of that into The Tain album with Horslisp when we were writing that,” recalls.
He had also wanted to do something further with all that material that was perculating in his consciousness for years. He had written a verse play, Deirdre Unforgiven, which has yet to be staged, but Dusk has made the cut.
Eamon was one of five members of the Carr family born to Mary and Joe Carr in Carrick Street, Kells. His mother came from the local Ginnity family that also includes Fintan, who served as chairman of the Meath GAA Co Board for 20 years, as well as Kevin, Vinny and the well-known comedian Noel V Ginnity. “I think I got my love of football from them, they all played for Drumbaragh.”
Young Eamon attended St Finian’s, Mullingar where he studied Latin and Greek. “I took to the Greek and I really loved the Greek playwrights, it was so different, it wasn’t like our contemporary television stuff or soap opera, it was really heavy stuff yet I enjoyed it and read a lot of it.”
Even as a schoolboy he wrote poetry and it has remained a passion for him throughout his life.
Very intereseted in journalism Eamon “struggled to get a start” in the trade initially and instead found work in an advertisment firm; it was there he met Charles O’Connor and Barry Devlin.
It’s stuff of legend now how the threesome were involved in creating some music for an ad. It worked well. “Afterwards we said why don’t we have a bit of craic and knock out a few tunes.”
After a few changes in the line up, that included, for a brief spell, another Meathman, Gene Mulvaney, the well-known Horslips combination of Jim Lockhart on keyboards and flute and guitarist Johnny Fean was formed.
Over 10 years the band worked hard gigging in smoke-filled parish halls throughout Ireland as well all sorts of venues in Britain, Europe and the Unisted States. They brought out a studio album every year, sometimes two. Their first - Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part - was to prove one of their most successful. What started as “a bit of craic” became a way of life.
“The real excitement to be honest was that the band provided us with the opportunity to create more stuff, that’s what it was about. If you’re creative you want to be creating something, short stories, poetry whatever, and in our case the albums were sort of stories and the lyrics obviously. That was the big bonus for us, you could actually create stuff and be paid for it. Absolutely, it was thrilling.”
When they rocked up in places like Kildalkey Parish Hall, Beechmount and Warrenstown College it was like the Rolling Stones had arrived in town. They looked like genuine rock stars and played like them. They brought with them strange-looking machines called ‘mixing desks.’ And, as journalist Declan Lynch noted, they brought real-life roadies. They were the business.
They played regular tunes such as ‘Dearg Doom,’ ‘Trouble with a Capital T,’ ‘The Man Who Built America’ and ‘Lonliness’ to audiences far and wide. “We’d go to America on 90-day visas and work almost everyday otherwise you’d be just sitting in a hotel spending money.”
Then, exhausted, the band came to a halt. The “stress and pressure” of trying to maintain a level of high quality material told. They took “a break” that lasted 24 years when they brought out their ‘Rolled Back’ album, a slower, re-working of some of their best known songs. They also gigged again, although only occasionally. Carr did not do the shows like the rest, his place on drums taken by Johnny Fean’s brother Ray.
Since the early 1980s Carr has worked as a journalist. One of his more memorable assignments as a features writer with the Evening Herald was reporting on Ireland’s adventures in the 2002 World Cup in Japan. Because of the time difference the Herald was often the first with any breaking news.
“Myself and Paul Hyland wrote reams of copy everyday, it was wonderful.” A book of poetry emerged from his experiences called ‘The Origami Crow: Journey into Japan, World Cup Sumer 2002.’
He was also sent to report on Mother Teresa’s funeral in Calcutta in 1997 “I actually managed to get into what was the equivalent of Dublin Castle in Calcutta and Mother Teresa was lying in state. I actually spent the night in the church with Mother Teresa before she was buried. The nuns in her order stayed with her all night, and I got access to all that."
Eamon Carr could be forgiven all right if, from time to time, he did wonder about life and the strange and wonderful twists it can take. It’s certainly brought him down quite a few unexpected routes.
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/entertainment/roundup/articles/2016/10/13/4128326-carr-play-premieres-in-gpo/
by Paul Murphy
If you were searching around for a suitable venue to stage the premiere of a play about the inspirational figure of Ireland’s mythological super hero Cu Culainn’s, where would you go? Suitable theatres are not in short supply in Dublin but f you wanted a really special place resonating with the echoes of history, then it has to be the GPO in O’Connell Street.
It was certainly an inspired choice for a new play – Dusk – by one of Ireland’s foremost poets and musicians (Horslips) Eamon Carr from Kells. I don’t know how Red Iron Productions managed to pull this particular venue but they did it in style, locating the stage in shadow of the Cu Chulainn statue in the building’s main foyer. The play is directed by award winning theatre maker Denis Conway and the main sponsor for the premiere was Drogheda solicitor Paddy Goodwin.
The drama is influenced by Agallamh a Seanorach (Collquy of the Elders) and the Japanese Noh tradition and the ghost of Cu Chulainn appears in conversation with a modern young woman named Aisling.
His nemesis, the Morrian, seen in the form of a crow perched on Cu Chulainn’s shoulder in the statue by Oliver Sheppard in the GPO, is also a character in the play. Dusk explores a provocative correlation between Irish myth and contemporary reality as unseen influences, which lie beneath the surface of our everyday world, manifest themselves.
It was wonderfully executed by actors Justine Doswell, Caoimhe Mulcahy an Garret Lombard, with assistance from composer Charles O’Connor.
Eamon Carr has admitted in interviews that he never believed his lay would see the stage. He had worked on it in secret for several years and never planned n it becoming a stage performance. “It was a labour of love and it’s nice to see it come to fruition. It’s very exciting because the content of the lay is very intense”, he said
“I was working on it for over three years. I started doing t for myself. I never expected it to be performed. I was writing it as an exercise for myself. Andy Cummins, who is a producer, saw it and said ‘ I would love to do this’”.
“Aisling” discovers that the ghost has his own problems which might be surprising for someone we regard as the great Irish masculine archtype. “He helps her but she helps him too – its a psychodrama”, Carr says.
This play is a tour de force from a man who, as a child, staged theatre productions for his playmates in the garage of his grandmother Ginnity’s home at Loyd, outside Kells.
Dusk is running at The New Theatre in Dublin until 15th October.
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/theatre-an-irish-legend-is-reborn-with-divine-intervention-35110445.html
When Eamon Carr got his first royalties cheque as a musician with Horslips, the first thing he did was travel to Greece to see the ancient amphitheatre of Epidaurus.
Greece was under the Generals, and the least cool place in the world to visit. But this questing writer has apparently never followed the crowd. He climbed to the back row of crumbling Epidaurus, heard a bee buzz from the stage thousands of seats beneath him, and was determined to write his own version of Euripides's tragedy Alcestis, and film it right here, for Irish television. As a rave.
Alas, his Alcestis never got made.
Now, the songwriter-drummer-journalist during the Troubles who, for the Herald, has covered all of human life - from celebrity funerals to boxing and music, turning out haiku and verse plays along the way - at last has a play coming out, DUSK: A Colloquy. At age 67, it is the first play he will see produced. "It's quite thrilling obviously," says the raconteur, sitting in rehearsals for DUSK.
DUSK is written in blank verse, staged as Japanese Noh theatre, a style that invokes the supernatural through masks and dance (see obscure Yeats plays for more Noh). Carr's play imagines Cú Chulainn as a ghostly figure (Garrett Lombard) trapped in the other world when he meets a forlorn woman, Aisling (Caoimhe Mulcahy). The play is directed by the talented theatre-maker Denis Conway.
Myths, Greek or Irish, have interested Carr all his life. "There's a great repository in every society and every tribe has their mythology," he says, lowering his voice, "that has its own psychic wisdom."
From the legends he read growing up in Kells, Co Meath, Carr has kept an enduring fascination with the brave and flawed figure of Cú Chulainn.
The Horslips songs Dearg Doom, Cú Chulainn's Lament, Faster than the Hound, Time to Kill, were Carr's way of exploring Cú Chulainn. Before he wrote these songs, back in the 1960s he set up Tara Telephone, the Dublin poetry collective Seamus Heaney and Phil Lynott dipped into. Cú Chulainn was, to these young men, "the swashbuckling anti-hero". It was obvious to them why Cú Chulainn had inspired Patrick Pearse and 1916.
"There's this iconic image by Oliver Sheppard of Cú Chulainn," says Carr, "as a dying or dead man, slashed and stabbed, who binds himself to a pillar so he can die standing up. It's more Irish than the potato as a national symbol." A few years ago, Carr wrote a play called Deirdre Unforgiven. As a reporter, he had met bereaved mothers of murdered sons in the North and found parallels in the myth of Deirdre, who loses her children. It was published, but not staged. A commission to put it on in the Peacock as part of this year's Dublin Fringe fell through, "so I rummaged around," says Carr, "and I found this instead".
Carr had been writing this verse play in "dribs and drabs" over two years, thinking of the "hardmen" he met after the Omagh and Drumcree bombs who had killed several people, and of Cú Chulainn who killed his own son in battle.
"What I'd been attempting to do was to explore the concept of the divine feminine power, pitted against this iconic Irish macho man who has a reputation for incredible violence. Suddenly these two polarities sprang to life and created an alchemy."
What's divine feminine power, asks this unfeminine female. "I don't know," says Carr.
"Are we talking about Beyoncé here?"
The feminine power, he ventures, "is a greater force than the male force. It's Wicca, it's the power of the witch, of the wise woman. It's that intuitive sense. A nurturing sense. Possibly, a more caring sense. I feel the world has been fairly hammered over the centuries by warring men, and men who take that into the boardroom and into politics".
Caoimhe Mulcahy will play Aisling, and play the concertina, in one of her first stage roles. Her Aisling is due to marry the following day and is very unhappy about it. Her journey from girl to woman is "empowering", says Mulcahy. "It's very exciting exploring Aisling, figuring out what it means nowadays, and bringing my own thing as a 25-year-old woman living in Dublin - the kinds of struggles you have as a female.
"Everyone has ideas growing up about how things are going to turn out. And quite often, we let society tell us: if you do this, you'll be happy. For women, there's pressure, you have to be something."
She says the play is challenging, the language being "flowery". "It's full of imagery. That's where the challenge is, trying to bring it to life on the stage and make it theatre. Because as it is, you could just read it as poetry."
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/theatre-arts/theatre-eamon-carrs-verse-play-uses-masks-music-song-and-dance-to-deliver-a-sweet-ritualised-meditation-on-regret-35124405.html
By Katy Hayes
Aisling, a young beautiful girl, strays away from a party on the eve of her wedding to think things over. She is disturbed in her reverie by CúChulainn, or perhaps it is his ghost. The time is non-specific – CúChulainn’s costume is Celtic, Aisling’s contemporary; the setting is a ruined tower by a lake.
Eamon Carr’s verse play uses masks, music, song and dance to deliver a sweet ritualised meditation on regret. The ghost on the stage is CúChulainn, but the ghost in the script is William Butler Yeats. CúChulainn here is not the heroic icon of the schoolchildren’s stories, but a broken old man haunted by his past deeds, in particular his unwitting slaughter of his own son. He is tormented by the Morrigan, the spirit of war embodied by dancer Justine Doswell, with a spiky Japanese tinged dance.
Director Denis Conway, who also serves as a blind caretaker, gets super performances all round. Garrett Lombard plays the Irish mythological figure with great physical theatricality; his face half-covered by a mask, his voice transformed into a gravelly echo. Caoimhe Mulcahy is stunning as Aisling in a performance that is completely natural and convincing, as she picks her way through the rhymes and stylized drama.
Yeats is not fashionable as a playwright, and Carr is brave to embrace his legacy. But this sixty minutes of rich theatrical tapestry shows what can be done with Yeats’s ingredients, when it is underpinned by pure conviction and executed with high ambition.
https://sittingonthefourthwall.wordpress.com/2016/10/15/dusk-review/
By Saoirse Anton
When one thinks of Irish myth and folklore on stage, one writer springs immediately to mind, W.B. Yeats. His plays earned their place in Irish theatre history for his lyrical writing, interpretations of the obscure and unexplored in Irish mythology, and reimagining of old well-worn tales. His legacy has evidently lived on and manifests itself in Eamon Carr’s Dusk. Telling the story of Aisling, who meets the ghost of the ancient Irish hero Cúchulain on the eve of her wedding, Dusk explores the real and mythological in Irish history. Carr’s verse writing and theatrical techniques are reminiscent of a number of Yeats ‘ works, with one particular scene in which The Morrígan (a mythological figure likened to the Valkyries of Norse folklore) dances, appearing to pay almost direct homage to At The Hawk’s Well. Drawing direct influence from such a well-known writer who has such an individual writing style is an ambitious decision, but for the most part, Carr takes on the challenge with impressive skill. There are points at which the text begins to lose pace in favour of stylistic writing (though I believe that can often be said of Yeats’ plays too!), but overall it is an engaging and well-crafted story.
Under Denis Conway’s direction, Garrett Lombard delivers an impressive performance as Cúchulain, striking the balance between ethereal and human qualities in the character, and deftly handling the dense text with gravity and intensity. It is his performance of the character that carries the show through its slow paced moments and keeps the audience engaged. There are, however, points at which Caoimhe Mulcahy (Aisling) appears to struggle with speaking in verse, breaking the flow of her character’s emotion. Similarly, the character of the Caretaker, played by Denis Conway, breaks the flow of the piece and slows its pace further, without much tangible benefit.
One of the most impressive scenes is the Morrigan’s dance, choreographed and performed by Justine Doswell. Though a short scene, it encapsulates the ethereal sense of the play effectively and further blurs the hazy lines between the real and mythological setting, and between past and present.
Worthy of mention is Katie Davenport’s set design which is actually composed largely of smoke and mirrors. With candles, a large mirror covering one wall and a dappled cloud pattern painted across it and the other two walls, the ambiguous setting is highlighted and each character’s reality is subtly represented.
Despite flaws in pacing and performance, Dusk is an engaging and interesting production, re-interpreting and challenging of the character of Cúchulain with regard to the mythological Ireland in which he existed and the Ireland which exists outside the theatre.
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2016/10/23/4128893-carr-trip-to-remember/
INTERVIEW by Jimmy Geoghegan
From globe-trotting drummer with Horslips to journalist, Kells native EAMON CARR can add playwright to his list of job descriptions. He tells he Meath Chronicle how the staging of his first stage play 'Dusk' was a terrifying experience
It would be understandable if, at times Eamon Carr stopped to wonder at the unexpected twists and turns life can take.
How, for instance, he came to be the drummer in Horslips, a band that for a decade flashed across the Irish musicial firmament like a super-bright comet fusing rock and traditional Irish music in a revolutionary way.
Later he became a journalist and had a seat at the front row of some truly momentous events including the Republic of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup campaign in Japan and the infamous Roy Keane/Mick McCarthy row.
From 1970 to 1980 Horslips produced a string of highly successful albums, played in many of the top venues in the world and even now, 46 years after they were formed, they retain a devoted following.
Reflecting back on his life so far Carr also has reason to feel a sense of wonder at how now - in his sixties - he has had one of his plays performed on stage.
Now he can, with justification, add ‘playwright’ to his list of job descriptions that includes musician, journalist and poet.
The other week he went through the nerve shredding experience
and watched as his verse play, Dusk (which has Cu Chulainn as a central character) was staged in the GPO as well as the New Theatre, Essex Street. It was a anxious, unforgettable night for the Meathman.
“I was a nervous wreck, and I was thinking until less than a year ago, last December actually, there was this script of a verse play I had written lying in a drawer, after all who is their right minds writes a verse play these days! Now here we are in October and it’s premiered in the GPO. Now, for me, that’s going to be very hard to top.”
The play - which Carr had written simply because it was something he wanted to do - is described in the publicity as a work that seeks to “explore a provocative correlation between Irish myth and contemporary reality as unseen influences, which lie beneath the surface of our everyday world, manifest themselves.”
Considering that Cu Chulainn was an inspirational figure for Padraig Pearse, and this is the centenary of the 1916 Rising, the staging of the play in the GPO was particularly significant.
Carr traces his long-held interest in Irish legend and mythology to the time when as a youngster he spent many happy hours in his grand-parents house in Lloyd outside Kells.
“My grandfather James Ginnity had a library and because he was a War of Independence man there were some very interesting stuff in his house. There was a lot of obviously political stuff and there were also a huge amount of Irish fairytales, writings that emerged from that whole Celtic Revival period when the GAA and the Abbey Theatre were starting, when there was a big Irish identity being formed, Lady Gregory and all that.”
“I became fascinated by how a legend or a mythological figure, like Cu Chulainn could have so much power and influence and I poured a lot of that into The Tain album with Horslisp when we were writing that,” recalls.
He had also wanted to do something further with all that material that was perculating in his consciousness for years. He had written a verse play, Deirdre Unforgiven, which has yet to be staged, but Dusk has made the cut.
Eamon was one of five members of the Carr family born to Mary and Joe Carr in Carrick Street, Kells. His mother came from the local Ginnity family that also includes Fintan, who served as chairman of the Meath GAA Co Board for 20 years, as well as Kevin, Vinny and the well-known comedian Noel V Ginnity. “I think I got my love of football from them, they all played for Drumbaragh.”
Young Eamon attended St Finian’s, Mullingar where he studied Latin and Greek. “I took to the Greek and I really loved the Greek playwrights, it was so different, it wasn’t like our contemporary television stuff or soap opera, it was really heavy stuff yet I enjoyed it and read a lot of it.”
Even as a schoolboy he wrote poetry and it has remained a passion for him throughout his life.
Very intereseted in journalism Eamon “struggled to get a start” in the trade initially and instead found work in an advertisment firm; it was there he met Charles O’Connor and Barry Devlin.
It’s stuff of legend now how the threesome were involved in creating some music for an ad. It worked well. “Afterwards we said why don’t we have a bit of craic and knock out a few tunes.”
After a few changes in the line up, that included, for a brief spell, another Meathman, Gene Mulvaney, the well-known Horslips combination of Jim Lockhart on keyboards and flute and guitarist Johnny Fean was formed.
Over 10 years the band worked hard gigging in smoke-filled parish halls throughout Ireland as well all sorts of venues in Britain, Europe and the Unisted States. They brought out a studio album every year, sometimes two. Their first - Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part - was to prove one of their most successful. What started as “a bit of craic” became a way of life.
“The real excitement to be honest was that the band provided us with the opportunity to create more stuff, that’s what it was about. If you’re creative you want to be creating something, short stories, poetry whatever, and in our case the albums were sort of stories and the lyrics obviously. That was the big bonus for us, you could actually create stuff and be paid for it. Absolutely, it was thrilling.”
When they rocked up in places like Kildalkey Parish Hall, Beechmount and Warrenstown College it was like the Rolling Stones had arrived in town. They looked like genuine rock stars and played like them. They brought with them strange-looking machines called ‘mixing desks.’ And, as journalist Declan Lynch noted, they brought real-life roadies. They were the business.
They played regular tunes such as ‘Dearg Doom,’ ‘Trouble with a Capital T,’ ‘The Man Who Built America’ and ‘Lonliness’ to audiences far and wide. “We’d go to America on 90-day visas and work almost everyday otherwise you’d be just sitting in a hotel spending money.”
Then, exhausted, the band came to a halt. The “stress and pressure” of trying to maintain a level of high quality material told. They took “a break” that lasted 24 years when they brought out their ‘Rolled Back’ album, a slower, re-working of some of their best known songs. They also gigged again, although only occasionally. Carr did not do the shows like the rest, his place on drums taken by Johnny Fean’s brother Ray.
Since the early 1980s Carr has worked as a journalist. One of his more memorable assignments as a features writer with the Evening Herald was reporting on Ireland’s adventures in the 2002 World Cup in Japan. Because of the time difference the Herald was often the first with any breaking news.
“Myself and Paul Hyland wrote reams of copy everyday, it was wonderful.” A book of poetry emerged from his experiences called ‘The Origami Crow: Journey into Japan, World Cup Sumer 2002.’
He was also sent to report on Mother Teresa’s funeral in Calcutta in 1997 “I actually managed to get into what was the equivalent of Dublin Castle in Calcutta and Mother Teresa was lying in state. I actually spent the night in the church with Mother Teresa before she was buried. The nuns in her order stayed with her all night, and I got access to all that."
Eamon Carr could be forgiven all right if, from time to time, he did wonder about life and the strange and wonderful twists it can take. It’s certainly brought him down quite a few unexpected routes.
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/entertainment/roundup/articles/2016/10/13/4128326-carr-play-premieres-in-gpo/
by Paul Murphy
If you were searching around for a suitable venue to stage the premiere of a play about the inspirational figure of Ireland’s mythological super hero Cu Culainn’s, where would you go? Suitable theatres are not in short supply in Dublin but f you wanted a really special place resonating with the echoes of history, then it has to be the GPO in O’Connell Street.
It was certainly an inspired choice for a new play – Dusk – by one of Ireland’s foremost poets and musicians (Horslips) Eamon Carr from Kells. I don’t know how Red Iron Productions managed to pull this particular venue but they did it in style, locating the stage in shadow of the Cu Chulainn statue in the building’s main foyer. The play is directed by award winning theatre maker Denis Conway and the main sponsor for the premiere was Drogheda solicitor Paddy Goodwin.
The drama is influenced by Agallamh a Seanorach (Collquy of the Elders) and the Japanese Noh tradition and the ghost of Cu Chulainn appears in conversation with a modern young woman named Aisling.
His nemesis, the Morrian, seen in the form of a crow perched on Cu Chulainn’s shoulder in the statue by Oliver Sheppard in the GPO, is also a character in the play. Dusk explores a provocative correlation between Irish myth and contemporary reality as unseen influences, which lie beneath the surface of our everyday world, manifest themselves.
It was wonderfully executed by actors Justine Doswell, Caoimhe Mulcahy an Garret Lombard, with assistance from composer Charles O’Connor.
Eamon Carr has admitted in interviews that he never believed his lay would see the stage. He had worked on it in secret for several years and never planned n it becoming a stage performance. “It was a labour of love and it’s nice to see it come to fruition. It’s very exciting because the content of the lay is very intense”, he said
“I was working on it for over three years. I started doing t for myself. I never expected it to be performed. I was writing it as an exercise for myself. Andy Cummins, who is a producer, saw it and said ‘ I would love to do this’”.
“Aisling” discovers that the ghost has his own problems which might be surprising for someone we regard as the great Irish masculine archtype. “He helps her but she helps him too – its a psychodrama”, Carr says.
This play is a tour de force from a man who, as a child, staged theatre productions for his playmates in the garage of his grandmother Ginnity’s home at Loyd, outside Kells.
Dusk is running at The New Theatre in Dublin until 15th October.
