A bilingual biography with Diarmuid de Faoite.
Directed by Paul Brennan.
An tSean Bheairic, Thursday 10th March at 8pm
Winner Stewart Parker Trust/ BBC NI Award
For the first time in thirteen years Diarmuid de Faoite brings his multi award winning, epic panorama on the life and times of writer Pádraic Ó Conaire to the stage. Described by the Irish Times as a “mesmerising one man show,” and by Foinse as “an energetic, explosive, powerful and imaginative play,” ‘Pádraic Ó Conaire’ is peopled with over thirty characters, including theatrical genius Mícheál mac Liammóir, poet Austin Clarke, short story writer Liam Ó Flaherty and revolutionaries Michael Collins and Éamonn de Valera, all of whom offer hilarious and sometimes tragic accounts of their escapades with Ó Conaire through the rebellion, the troubled birth of the Irish Free State and beyond.
‘Pádraic Ó Conaire’ was a one-man cultural revolution, father of the modern Irish short story and a committed socialist. Rather than adhere to the Celtic heroic twilight of the day, he refused to shy away from societal issues, bringing Irish language writing kicking and screaming into the twentieth century. Similarly, de Faoite’s show is a warts and all account of the man, his family, the times he lived in and his tragic demise.
De Faoite’s physicality, presence, mastery of accent and seemingly chameleon-like ability to change sex and character while weaving an epic tale holds both Irish and English speakers alike enraptured. An English synopsis of passages in Irish is provided though it is hardly needed as the play moves from Irish to English and back seemingly as effortlessly as de Faoite moves from one foot to the other. “A warts and all account of a forgotten genius, a hopeless drunk and an inveterate sponger. Comic, tragic and wonderfully compassionate, Pádraic Ó Conaire should not be missed.” ***** The Irish Times.
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