‘PONDLING’ is a solo show by Genevieve Hulme-Beaman that won multiple big awards for her: a Scotsman Fringe First in Edinburgh, the Stewart Parker Award and at Dublin Fringe, Best Female Performer.
‘Pondling’ has been invited to present at Origins 1st Irish Theatre Festival in Manhattan in September, and naturally, her college writing mentor and now director and co-producer, Paul Meade of Gúna Nua, is delighted.
From the South Circular Road in Limerick, local audiences know him through steady work with Island Theatre Company in the 1990s. ‘Hamlet’ in St Mary’s Cathedral and ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ were especially notable; years later he was directed by Joan Sheehy as the eponymous Buck Jones in Georgian House.
There’s more, but Paul Meade made it on moving to Dublin and setting up his Gúna Nua company 16 years ago. He went on to pioneer smash hits such as ‘Little Gem’ and his own ‘Skin Deep’, for which he won the Stewart Parker for Best New Play. ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Chicane’ had shows in Limerick.
For City of Culture, he directed the Mike Finn/ Brad Pitt Light Orchestra hit, ‘The Unlucky Cabin Boy’ which will revive at Lime Tree in November. And let’s not forget the high profile TV work, ‘The Clinic’ and ‘The Tudors’ being amongst credits.
Paul Meade’s company produced ‘Pondling’ with Ramblin Man and again, his eye and ear for theatre are rewarded. “It’s entirely an Irish production,” he makes clear, having met Hulme-Beaman’s when she trained in the Gaiety School of Acting. He worked on a mentoring programme there and was impressed by the quality of her writing. ‘Pondling’ emerged in 2013 and he directed it for Dublin Fringe, the show picking up its first gong.
He lists the invited stations since, Moscow, London, New York among them. “We have been very busy with it”, Meade admits. “It’s a lovely show, very quirky, funny. People are laughing all the way through and then feeling very upset for the girl at the end”.
Possibly because reviews are bald that within this “lonely little girl” at 10 years of age lurks a psychotic. “She’s a girl who grows up with no female influence around her and has a rich fantasy life that goes a bit dark, goes wrong”. He chuckles.
This grim fake/ reality world is at the multi-venue 59e59 Theatre in the Big Apple from September 8 to October 4; no Limerick dates to offer yet.
