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THE WALWORTH FARCE TEACHERS’ NOTES At a Glance Production Credits Director’s Note The Walworth Farce Story Dinny’s Play (The play within the play) Druid Theatre Enda Walsh Links At a Glance Set on the 15th floor of a tower block on London's Walworth Road, The Walworth Farce is a blend of madcap humour and the darker, deeper concerns pivotal to human existence. The talented cast swap characters and change costumes throughout, effortlessly combining side-splitting hilarity with dramatic intensity. This "ferociously entertaining" production was written by multi-award winning Irish playwright Enda Walsh, who shot to fame with Disco Pigs - a widely successful play which he later adapted for film. Production Credits CREATIVE TEAM Writer Director Set and costume designer Lighting designer Casting director Enda Walsh Mikel Murfi Sabine Dargent Paul Keogan Maureen Hughes CAST Dinny Sean Blake Hayley Michael Glenn Murphy Tadhg Murphy Raymond Scannell Mercy Ojelade CREW Production manager Technical manager Company stage manager Stage manager Master carpenter Costume supervisor Wigs and make Up Eamonn Fox Barry O’Brien Sarah Lynch Paula Tierney Gus Dewar Doreen McKenna Val Sherlock Director’s Note Hello. I’m Mikel Murfi, thanks for coming to this evening’s performance of The Walworth Farce. We’re delighted to be here. This has been a great journey for us and spans five or six years all told. In 2005, Garry (Hynes) Druid’s Artistic Director and Enda Walsh asked me to come on board as a director of The Walworth Farce. Since then we’ve been fortunate to tour the world with this piece. The production team you see listed in this programme have been with the show since day one in some capacity or other and I’d like to acknowledge them all, they’re all really, really talented, dedicated people, Druid is a special company. So here’s a little background... Enda, whom I’ve known for years, sends me a play. I’ve no idea why. He says ‘here, have a read of this’. He’s wondering, I suppose, that if I like the piece, would I be interested in directing it. So, I read the play. It’s not really possible to describe what happens next. It is like being punched in the deep subconscious repeatedly for several days on end. I’m reeling. I have to say, honestly, I haven’t a clue what is going on, other than I love the play immediately. It is something wholly new and with an impossible amount of energy coming off the page. I read it again and again and the play becomes clearer to me but still and it’s now six years later, it still holds secrets, still compels with every remount, still challenges the actors, wrings them out, every evening asking them for new psychological and physical feats to be performed and what I love most... it still challenges an audience in a big, BIG way. The Walworth Farce is a great ‘ask’ of an audience. It asks you to allow us throw you into the unknown, the un-understandable. It’s confusing. It’s fast. It’s delirious. And I think ultimately thrilling for an audience. Enda is a fierce and brave writer. He’ll stop at nothing to break the actors in two, to split the audiences’ heads, to rush words at you so quickly you think you might not survive the night and yet he has such a pure understanding of how to make theatre that his plays are a treat again and again for theatre folk. It isn’t possible to imagine Enda’s plays in another form other than theatre and that’s a fine achievement. I couldn’t give the plot away if I tried. You’ll just have to sit back and give yourself over to the madness. I directed the piece, that I’ll acknowledge, but in writing this note I just want to share my enthusiasm for Enda’s work. The piece flies along, it’s like being on two roller coasters simultaneously and then being hit by a third. Once I had said that I’d direct the piece I had very little to do other than follow what was on the page. It’s meticulously worked out. It’s funny, harrowing and as all great theatre does, it speaks to the heart of us, reflects in a brilliant theatrical way on what it is to be us, to live in this mad world of ours. I hope you enjoy it. Mikel Murfi The Walworth Farce Story Everyday, the same routine. Set in a council flat on the fifteenth floor of a tower block on the Walworth Road, a father and two sons act out as farce the day the father left Ireland to live in London. The father stars as himself, Dinny – a house decorator then brain surgeon from Cork. The two sons, Blake and Sean, take between eight other characters – including, on Blake’s part, three women. The farce is frenetic, madcap slapstick, a trial for the greatest gymnast and everyday they have it all to play for, the acting trophy – daily coveted and daily won by Dinny. Farce it may be, but for these three men locked in this room it must count as the truth – “this story we play is everything” – as a shield against all that threatens from outside. Written by controversial Irish playwright Enda Walsh, this “ferociously entertaining” production is currently on one of the biggest world tours for a new play in recent theatre memory. By the time The Walworth Farce shows in Sydney (Australia) on the 24th April, 2010, it will have been performed 209 times in 22 cities using 627 cans of beer, 418 packets of pink wafers and 41 pints of Maureen’s ‘special blue sauce’ – this is the story so far. 2003 The Walworth Farce is commissioned by Druid. 2006 World premiere at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, on 20th March followed by a short tour to Cork and Dublin. The production receives remarkable Irish notices and work begins almost immediately to bring the production to the Edinburgh Festival the following year. 2007 Opens to critical acclaim at the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival, winning the prestigious Fringe First award. Plays to sold-out houses and attracts the attention of international presenters. The calls to tour the work begin and plans are made to bring it to New York, London and back home to Ireland the following year. 2008 American premiere at St Ann’s Warehouse, New York, on 17th April 2008. In September it joins the ‘rep’ of the National Theatre, London, for a three month run, becoming the sell-out hit of the season. In December it returns home to Galway where it plays to a capacity crowd at the Town Hall Theatre before transferring to the Project Arts Centre, Dublin. 2009 In September, The Walworth Farce starts out on one of the biggest world tours for a new play in recent theatre memory. The production opens in the UK, followed by a quick stopover in Galway ahead of an extensive tour of Canada and coast-to coast America. 2010 Premieres in Australia and New Zealand and on April 24th the curtain closes on a play that has wowed audiences all around the world for the past 5 years. As for the future, watch this space… Druid would like to acknowledge and thank Eugene Downes and his team at Culture Ireland for their financial support and commitment to bringing The Walworth Farce on this world tour. Druid would also like to acknowledge the Arts Council for their financial support towards the original staging of this production. Dinny’s Play (The play within the play of The Walworth Farce) The action takes place in the fine house of Jack and Eileen Cotter which overlooks glorious Cork City on the hills of Montenotte. Dinny Paddy Brain surgeon and painter decorator, a family man Dinny’s younger brother, over from London where he lives in terrible poverty on the Walworth Road. Maureen Dinny’s wife. A wizard in the kitchen. Vera – Paddy’s wife A money-hungry, man-eating, meddling fox. Sean Dinny’s five-year-old son Blake Dinny’s seven-year-old son Jack Cotter Wealthy businessman about Cork, who has an interest in women’s clothing Peter – Jack’s brother-in-law City gent who spends his weekends schmoozing at Kinsale Yacht Club. Eileen Cotter Jack’s wife and sister toPeter. A fancy woman. Druid Theatre At the heart of everything we do is our audience. Our goal is to create electrifying theatre experiences for every person, in every place and every time we perform. Since its foundation in Galway in 1975 and right up until the present day, Druid passionately believes that audiences have a right to see first class professional theatre without having to travel long distances outside their own communities. The company has toured to every nook and cranny in Ireland and since 1982 has toured to key global centres around the world, making it one of the premier theatre companies in the English speaking world. Druid’s goal is to create electrifying theatre experiences for every person, in every place and every time they perform. Between 2009 and 2010, the company will tour internationally to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Druid was founded by graduates of the National University of Ireland, Garry Hynes, Mick Lally and Marie Mullen, and has had two artistic directors: Garry Hynes (1975–91 and 1995 to date) and Maeliosa Stafford (1991–94). Enda Walsh-Writer Druid: The Walworth Farce (Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2007); The New Electric Ballroom (Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2008; Irish Times Theatre Award Best New Play 2008); one-acts Lynndie’s Gotta Gun and Gentrification. His other theatre writing credits include: Delirium, an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov for Theatre O (The Abbey Theatre, The Barbican); The Walworth Farce (Galway, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh – 2007 Fringe First Winner, New York, London); Chatroom (Cottesloe, Royal National Theatre, March 2006, Autumn 2007); The Small Things (for Paines Plough, Menier Chocolate Factory, London and Galway Arts Festival 2005); The New Electric Ballroom (Perth International Arts Festival, Riverside Studios, London, Edinburgh – 2008 Fringe First Winner, Irish Tour, Kammerspiele Theater Munich, winner of Theater Heute’s Best Foreign Play 2005); two short plays, How These Men Talk (Zurich Shauspielehaus) and Lynndie’s Gotta Gun (for Artistas Unidos, Lisbon’s National Theatre); bedbound (Dublin Theatre Festival 2000, Edinburgh 2001 – Fringe First Winner, Royal Court, London, New York and worldwide); Misterman (for Corcadorca, Granary Theatre, Cork, 1999); Disco Pigs (for Corcadorca, Triskel, Cork, 1995; Dublin, 1996; Edinburgh, 1997; West End 1998 – awarded Arts Council Playwrights Award 1996, Best Fringe Production 1996, Stewart Parker and George Devine Awards 1997); and The Ginger Ale Boy (for Corcadorca, Cork, 1994). Enda Walsh’s plays have been performed worldwide and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He has received four Edinburgh Fringe First Awards as well as a Critic’s Choice Award (1997) and the Edinburgh Herald Archangel Award (2008) for his contribution to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His film credits include: Disco Pigs (Temple Films/ Renaissance), and Hunger, (Blast/FILMFOUR, winner of the Camera D’Or and international prize in Cannes 2008). He is currently shooting Chatroom (Ruby Films/ FILMFOUR). In development: Island of the Aunts (an adaptation of Eva Ibbotson’s children’s novel for Cuba Pictures); and Dusty Springfield: Goddess of the Sixties (Number 9 Films/FILMFOUR). His radio credits include: Four Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks (RTE Radio – winner of the PPI Award for Best Radio Drama 2001); and The Monotonous Life of Little Miss P (BBC – commended in the Berlin Prix Europa 2003). Links Druid Theatre www.druid.ie The Walworth Farce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2huVAv_LayY Interview with Company http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsEZbjbTK3Q