IF shows like FAME – The Musical and Menopause the Musical caught your heart, look forward to Robert C Kelly Production’s next stint in Limerick. Grumpy Old Women should tickle, titillate and enthral at UCH on Tuesday March 22 and Wednesday 23 with its knowing theme and terrific actresses. Adele King (Twink), Flo McSweeney (DeDannan) and Una Crawford O’Brien (Renée in Fair City) star in this show which, written by Jenny Eclair and Judith Holder, has been ‘Irishised’ for successful transition here.
They are successful it is, these Grumpy Old Woman, with Una Crawford O’Brien reporting “packed out shows and fantastic houses”.
She describes the play as “a conversation piece more than a drama, which has very funny moments. It’s comedy. We are three women, sitting on sofa, talking to each other and the audience and making a laugh of our selves. It’s all in the telling of the story and yes, the script is terrific”.
Arts page makes the point that Una Crawford O’Brien, a comely looker, is a tad short in the tooth to play a grumpy old fart, and she laughs.
“You know, when I heard what it was called I thought to myself, “I’m not that grumpy, not really old and surely I only qualify for one word in the title, that of ‘woman’. And now as we say the lines every night, I recognise how true they are to what I say sometimes and how I feel”.
Does she prefer stage to film? Crawford O’Brien has a pedigree, touring the country with the Pulitzer winning play ‘Love Letters’ and having done ‘Deadline‘ by Robert Massey and ‘Collected Stories’ by Donald Marguiles. She’s worked in films to but we know her best as Renée in Fair City – currently living in Brazil as a gooseberry mother-in-law.
“I haven’t been killed off so I can come back,” she says. “Fair City is soap, isn’t it? There is nothing like appearing to a live audience at night but still, when the red light in a studio (camera) goes on or the curtain goes up, I’m equally happy. I really love it”.
Folks, let your love flow for three Grumpy Old Women in UCH next Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23, 8pm; book on www.uch.ie.
