Pic: by Eoin Madigan
KUDOS to any Limerick theatre company that gets accepted for, and grabs a venue at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Edinburgh is a prestigious platform and brings with almost a guarantee of further ticket sales wherever.
So to hear that Limerick’s newest theatre company, Honest Arts Production, has landed a fortnight in Edinburgh is mighty fine news indeed. Early scouting for a venue, script submission – ‘The Mid-Knight Cowboy’, and then securing a more central site for this show amongst hundreds were all in the can by early June.
Honest Arts is a two hander between actor/ writer/ producer Pius McGrath and technical/ manager/ marketing Tara Doolan. Between them, they have a skillset that is complementary, as well as having seen or actually worked on just about every show that has come to or emerged from Limerick in recent years.
Event management is another service offered by their company, the June ‘That’s Limerick!’ showcase in Smock Alley, Dublin being case in point.
Pius we know from star stage turns with Orchard Theatre Company, Magic Roundabout, Lunchtime at the Savoy, Torch Players and ‘back in the day’ for this 20-something, pantomime; Tara has been a theatre practitioner in all venues.
Despite being a walking dish, Pius sees himself “especially after Freud (‘Freud’s Last Session’) and ‘Bouncers’ as going towards character acting”. He has written the script for ‘The Mid-Knight Cowboy’, a one-man-show of three parts: Billy the nine-year old who believes he is a cowboy, “whose perspective on life has no pretence”; the Celtic Tiger man in his 30s who comes back later as the third, “an aged man reflecting on life”.
For all the social subtext, “It’s quite a humourous piece, really fast and quick” and for Tara, a work that technically challenging with a substantial lighting element. There’s an original soundscape also.
She is delighted that their first production has been accepted also for New York’s big United Solo Festival’ of one-person shows on Broadway.
In Edinburgh, ‘The Mid-Knight Cowboy’ will run from July 31 to August 10 at C Nova Studio, see hyperlink htttps://edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/mid-knight-cowboy. So when do we see it?
“We are doing preview dates in Ireland before we go, namely Galway and Kilkee and we’ll bring it back to Limerick after Edinburgh”. Sounds like a grand plan, a chance to see the swashbuckle male of an Ireland that was and..to hear his thoughts on same.
