by Rose Rushe
LIMERICK plays produced with City of Culture 2014 funding have made it to the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, as does the Culture programming and administrative team.
There are two theatre candidates shortlisted for the February ceremony, ‘On The Wire’ by Wildebeest Theatre Company is up for Best Production, and ‘Waiting in Line’s Mario Beck is nominated for Best Set Design in this part-animated show for Honest Arts Production Company.
‘On The Wire’ was site -specific at The Sailor’s House in November, 100 years after World War 1. Led by Wildebeest’s Marie Boylan and co-written with fellow actors Mike Finn, Conor Madden, Shane Whisker and Amanda Minihan, it considers the fate of a soldier returning home to his Limerick based wife and child. Maeve Butler produced and Terry O’Donovan of the UK based Dante or Die company directed, himself a Parteen man who trained with Limerick Youth Theatre, as did Boylan.
It’s an emotional story, the wallpaper’s sandbag motif reflective of interior chaos as much as the flailing new order established by truce.
Photo: Sam Keenan
Honest Arts, operating out Dance Limerick Space in John’s Square for ‘Waiting in Line’, gave us a fast paced insight into life on the dole for workers, slackers, pimped-up uselessness, despairing family and social welfare officials.
Written by Pius McGrath, colleague Tara Doolan edited and co-produced while Beck digitally animated multiple backgrounds to the spare set. He worked as crew to Fuerza Brute’s high octane performance in Culture Factory and has numerous international credits to his freelance name.
Limerick City of Culture team of past programmers and current administrators is up for a Judge’s Special Award “for using the city in the most imaginative way to rebrand Limerick as a beacon of artistic endeavour”. The leaders are Sheila Deegan as arts and cultural manager and Mike Fitzpatrick as director, preceded by Karl Wallace as artistic director and primary programmer in 2013. Paul Foley headed up operations performances, festivals and parades.
The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards will be decided on February 22 at National Concert Hall, Dublin.
