RARE that theatre leans to the genre of thriller. Welcome, heart in thump, to ‘Before Monsters Were Made’ at Lime Tree Theatre for one night on Saturday February 25, 8pm. This sombre mystery is about suspicion, accusations, morbidity and burst families.
A girl goes missing from the village and the upstanding Colgans struggle in being central to the ensuing storm.
James Cronin is cast as David Colgan, a man whose family has lived in the murk of doubt and castigation previously. They now have to bear through it again, at heightened pitch.
The actor spoke to Limerick Post while on the Luas into three nights at Civic Theatre, Tallaght; Limerick will be the last show of this hit run. Cronin and playwright Ross Dungan have worked a few times together and ‘Before’ is his first full production with director Ronan Phelan.
“The story is set over two timeframes, 1968 and 1972 and while told in parallel, there’s a bleed between where they fast-forward and flashback,” he reveals. “In 1968 and again in 1972, a young girl goes missing, a different girl in each year. In the first half or story, this [disappearance] is a background incident, everyone is talking about it. In the second, the rumours are everywhere and suspicion is raised about David Colgan.
“Action is centred around a dinner party – it’s a great scene. Everything comes to a head.”
“It is his daughter who does not come home one night. All the suspicion comes back”.
Especially wounding to David’s reputation is that his father Vincent, pillar to the community, was central to the rumour mill years ago as being agent to the first disappearance.
David’s marriage to Abigail was rocky then, unseated further by the pressure from a fearful community. By the time he finds himself being isolated four years later, the marriage has ended. John Cronin tells us: “‘Before Monsters Were Made’ is very plot driven. It’s very tense, a very dark place that we go to”.
There are five actors on stage as histories and expectations implode in the mind. www.limetreetheatre.ie to book.
