BILLY is dead. Long live Billy. Billy, a tyrant father of two and abusive husband, is killed off in the opening scene by his adult daughters. Yet such was his malign power over them that he lives on as the narrative voice to this play in the heads of his family, always a presence: “He runs his family as a personal fiefdom and the women are there to service him and his madness. He is violent, disturbed and sexually controlling”. Still, the gunshot that killed changes everything and stories unfold…
The work is ‘Five Kinds of Silence’, written in 1996 by Briton Shelagh Stephenson for radio. It won two big awards, the Writers’ Guild and a Sony Award for Best Original Drama when released.
Orchard Theatre Company (OTC) begins a national tour with ‘Five Kinds of Silence’ at Loft Venue, overhead Locke Bar, on Wednesday March 30 for four nights, 8pm. ADAPT Services will have an information desk at the hour-long show and all box office on March 30 goes to the charity, a refuge, outreach and education centre for women experiencing domestic abuse, and their children.
OTC’s artistic director Simon Thompson always chooses some social issue productions in the year and Stephenson’s work corroborated OTC’s own observation of the recession – unemployment, loss of identity, no money – having led to “a spiralling in domestic abuse”.
“Five Kinds of Silence is a fantastic piece of writing. It was originally a radio play but we thought we could adapt it for theatre. Some of the actors had worked with ADAPT House and suggested a link up there. Majella Foley Friel (training co-ordinator with the charity) came to the rehearsals and told us afterwards how real and accurate the dynamic was”.
As director, Thompson says “the essence of the play is the quality of the writing, its honesty, yet there are no scenes of violence or of sex abuse”.
Cast with Limerick actors, expect familiar names from defunct companies Teaspach and Impact: Darren Maher (Billy), Amy Kinlon, Stephanie O’Keeffe, Karen FitzGibbon, Steff Barry and Mel White. Some have multiple parts and DJ/ filmmaker Johnny Greenwood has composed a feeling score through soundscape. Simon Thompson references the radio origins with a stage set stripped of props, throwing the impact on the acting, the script and its compelling story of a family, “struggling to understand reality outside their stifling tomb”.
Is there life after remand for murder? Attend to Loft Venue at Locke Bar, Wednesday March 30 to Saturday April 2, 8pm to find out. Tel. 085-2085737.
