by Rose Rushe
Photo: Ger Blanch
FISHAMBLE: The New Play Company has an eight year relationship with Pat Kinevane, whose latest work ‘Underneath’ will premier at Lime Tree Theatre, December 3 to 6, thanks to City of Culture.
Interestingly, this man of bright spirit who trails weighty acclaim in theatre-craft, is half Limerick and thrilled to be looping back. His shows are hot property with the faithful; Theatre at the Savoy and Lime Tree have each hosted works.
Kinevane will platform his 2014 solo here and is “very humbled by [that] actually,” he reveals. “As a writer and performer I am honestly so fortunate with the shows directed by Jim Culleton and Fishamble’s loyalty to me in developing my work”.
He makes the point that this year alone, Fishamble has issued seven new productions by various writers.
Back to his father, a loved man who died 26 years ago. “He was Denis Kinevane from Adare, from Tuogh, which is the spiritual homestead.” His mother Marie Murphy is a Cork woman and Pat Kinevane’s accent has all the lilt of the south.
He is known for dark, literally and figuratively, works that carry a dedication to those marginalised, strewn off the mainstream. ‘Underneath’ promises a look at same with “a central character that is woman who because of the way she looks….she’s badly disfigured and badly taunted, feels threatened as she grows progressively from child to adulthood”.
He plays many voices in this, expertly lit to meet his sense that theatre has to be theatrical, to be three and four dimensional in what it suggests. Composer Denis Clohessy gets a nod for intriguing soundscape.
The play addresses layers. What is surface? What does it mean? Societal brainwashing to absorb and admire conventional, idealised form. ‘Underneath’ looks at what’s beneath the pretty plumage: “Our need for intimacy, to protect each other from loneliness, to reach out. Our healthy need for beautiful things”.
This playwright and performer tips 80minutes and laughs amid the shadows. www.limetreetheatre.ie, 8pm shows.
