IF you think tourists are scare in Limerick this year, know where you can locate the foreign posse on Sunday nights. A mix of locals and overseas visitors make up the audience each week for CentreSpace Player’s production of The Playboy of the Western World at this St Alphonsus Street venue. Synge’s comic and ironic masterpiece is an Irish theatrical classic that warms all nationalities for Summer Sundays until August 15.
A partnership deal with Dolan’s Pub next door sees €20 tickets secure a pre-theatre supper in Dolan’s as well as access to the play. Artistic director Richie Ryan says he was “anxious to get some summer theatre going in Limerick. Playboy is part of this concept to have a product to offer people – this show is the start of something we hope to do every year. We have seating for 90 and a full stage and full set for our unabridged version”.
People have forgotten how long it is since The Playboy of the Western World was in Limerick. Richie makes the point that “the language is beautiful to listen to and Irish music played is by one of the regular musicians in Dolan’s who made a soundtrack for us”.
He signals out several actors for praise: Beth Brickenden, a DTI drama student, as Pegeen Mike: Niall O’Halloran (Les Miserables and panto) as Christy; Deirdre Flynn (MIC PhD) as the Widow Quinn and “Colum Coomey, a reporter with the Limerick Post, as Philly”.
Come again, a colleague on stage with you every week?
“He came down to do a report on the launch for LimerickPost.ie video slot and we were still missing a couple of parts while in rehearsal. He said he’d fill in if we were stuck”.
Coomey, a New Media & English graduate, is all the better for ‘treading of boards’ in this Sunday night slot. “I’m one of two men, a drunk, who is friendly with Pegeen Mike’s father. I have a few lines in Act 1 and again at the beginning of Act 3. It’s actually a lot harder to act drunk than I thought it would be! CentreSPACE Player’s Playboy is an Irish production and a funny show. If people think we have it tough now, you should see how it was for us in 1905,” Colm advises.
Words to the wise, and a fine show to attend Sundays August 1, 8 and 15; curtain at 7pm and €10 ticket.
