I wrote a play called Gunnion once. It was about a big fat man whod taken to the bed, who had a girl come in to tend to him. He got her to place his investment bets at the bank. The sadly departed Red Kettle commissioned it, and I set to work on the second draft. 1995. Couldnt do it. It was dead. So I met Jim Nolan one day in Amiens St station, and said I had a better idea. Another play instead. Catalpa. Thats how it happened - running away from one thing, and ran into another. Little did I know. Bairbre Ni Chaoimh directed it, Ben Hennessy designed, Trevor Knight on music, Tich Meagher SM, the late Jim Daly did lights, and half of Waterford seemed to be involved - well, the Meaghers anyway. I remember the first reading of it in Garter Lane. It was a bit looong. Ive always enjoyed cutting stuff. We cut out a 10-minute chunk of Breslin travelling on the railroad across America after the dress rehearsal (yeah, waste of time learning it). He tries to chat up his compartment travelling companion Senorita Conchita while taking potshots at attacking Sioux - 1875 was in the middle of Custers attempted extermination of the Sioux people. Hm, must see about putting that back in sometime Trevor doesnt expect, in the midlands maybe .. .. Anyway, we had a crazy tour. I especially remember a magical night in Days Hotel Inisbofin when I unwittingly froze my four-year-old daughter Clara to the spot in panic and dread when the whale surfaced, but she soon got over it, and all in all that was a lovely summer of 95, twenty years ago. Gone in a blink. And of course there was Tuam. Dumb and Dumber was out, and the movie poster in the foyer sneered at Tich and me as we tried to put out the fire we started in the control room of the Mall. Well it was a dreary place, give me Fremantle Gaol any day! These posters show what one round-the-world rescue voyage can do to a man. He starts out as George Anthony, but twenty years of whaling turns him into John Breslin. Laugh laugh grin cough grimace swallow phlegm and stroke moustache.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 23:32:54 +0000
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