My Misterman review (From SBPost 17/07/11)

Misterman by Enda Walsh, Black Box Theatre, Galway, until July 24. 
Rating: *****

The business of living isn’t always easy. No one knows that better than Thomas Magill, a lonely, thirty-something midlands dweller, who is battling demons from within and without.

Living in a warehouse cluttered with tape-recorders, scrambled eggs and teddy bears, Thomas fills his days with activities – visiting his father in the graveyard, buying his mother biscuits and promoting religious improvement around the town of Inishfree – in an effort to stave off his darker tendencies.

Based on that description, Misterman – by internationally acclaimed Irish playwright Enda Walsh – should perhaps be the most miserable of plays, a torrent of self-loathing and woe. But Misterman is not what it seems.

While at one level Walsh’s reimagined play (first staged in 1999) represents ‘‘that very simple thing of what it is to be alive’’, as Walsh would have it, it’s rarely outwardly miserable. In fact, it’s one of the sharpest, laugh-out-loud funniest and most acutely well-observed plays I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

Misterman is ostensibly a 120-minute monologue from Cillian Murphy in the role of Thomas. But a large number of voices (along with an excellent score from Donncha Dennehy) also inhabit the stage. Some come at you from the Beckettian tape-recorders placed around the cavernous space – such as the voices of Thomas’s Mammy and the ‘angel’ Edel, which Thomas has recorded in his travels around the town.

Others are revealed by Thomas himself, as Murphy, giving an extraordinary performance, morphs himself into other characters, by dint of note-perfect changes in his vocal register and body language. He’s Mr McAnerney (‘‘Your poor dad.Now he was a great man,” he tells Thomas), the bully Dwain Flynn (‘‘You fucking headcase!” he screams at Thomas), Simple Eamon Moran (a potential religious affiliate) and Timmy O’Leary (‘‘the boy who treats his mother like an old dog’’).

So total is the transformation in each case that you find yourself thinking Murphy (unrecognisable in a dirty, buttoned-up shirt, his beard unkempt, his striking eyes almost hidden by hair) could do a great job of being a stand-up comic.

The wit of Walsh’s script,meanwhile, is dust-dry, the ripostes blunt and pithy. ‘‘D’ya know what I’d do if I didn’t have my senses? I’d kidnap ya,’’ one old biddy (also played by Murphy) tellsThomas affectionately. ‘‘The guards would have to lock me up.”

Line by line,Walsh moves to inextricably link the everyday with the grotesque – and the darkness waiting beyond. If there’s a slight dip in quality in the later stages, as Thomas moves towards a more naked expression of pain, this is no more than a small gripe.

This is the kind of play that makes you feel incredibly lucky to have seen it. Misterman is a stunning achievement.

Sunday Morning Coming Down playlist

Hi folks,
A few people were looking for my playlist from this morning's 
Sunday Morning Coming Down -- I was covering for the wonderful 
Pearl on Phantom --- check out her show at 10am every Sunday and 
see her show details here.

Anyway,  here you go -- I had lots of fun doing it up!

Playlist for Sunday Morning Coming Down 
Father Us    3:26    Marry Waterson & Oliver Knight  from The Days That Shaped Me
Wren    4:18    Norabelle  from the album   Wren
Frailach    3:02    The Frames   from    Liss Ard Vol.1
Joi & Karen    3:25    Johann Johannsson    from   Englaborn
Cruel Time    5:36    Owensie  from Aliens
Marz    3:58    John Grant   from  Queen Of Denmark
Most Beautiful Widow In Town   3:19    Sparklehorse  from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmission
Set The Tigers Free   3:24    Villagers  from  Becoming A Jackal
Revelator   6:21    Gillian Welch   from    Time (The Revelator)
He War   3:30    Cat Power    from You Are Free
Lost Cause   3:47    Beck    from Sea Change
Slow Dynamo   2:44    Valerie Francis   from  Slow Dynamo
A Deeper Understanding    3:25    Kate Bush   15/04/201119:07
Don't Let It Bring You Down (LP Version)   2:57    Neil Young  from  After The Goldrush
Dynamite   4:26    Stina Nordenstam    from Dynamite
July Flame Laura Veirs   3:48      from the album July Flame
Complicated Shadows    2:57  Elvis Costello
Aimee Mann3:34       It’s Not Going to Stop

Burn Baby Burn — the death of Rock?

Pop Goes the Rock
30 January 2011

By Nadine O’Regan

Niall Breslin is leaving his newly-adopted hometown of London this afternoon.

He plans on being out of contact in Kent for awhile, as he’s got some songwriting to do and he wants a little peace of mind.

The songwriting won’t be for his band the Blizzards, though.

Just two years ago, the Mullingar pop-rockers had a top three hit in Ireland with their song Trust Me I’m a Doctor. In Breslin, they had a frontman that girls swooned over and even non-musos admired (Breslin is no skinny indie kid – he used to play rugby for Leinster).

And when they played live, they rocked good and hard. By Breslin’s own admission, they hadn’t yet made the album that would break them into the big time, but they had the potential – and, seemingly, the hunger and drive – to do it.

But the Blizzards disbanded over a year ago, unwilling to battle any further with an industry that refused to let them through the door, no matter how loudly they threatened to break it down.

Now two of the band run a pub together In Mullingar, another has gone back to college to study classical music, and Breslin is working as an all-genres songwriter and producer for 19 Entertainment, the London company founded by Simon Fuller, the brains behind the Spice Girls and American Idol.

When Breslin, 29, talks about the rock music industry, he can’t help it: his tone turns terse and a little angry. ‘‘What kills me about the rock thing is that the music fans who I call the purists love real music,” he says. ‘‘They love the underdog bands, the bands that are a little more left of centre. I can’t understand how these bands can’t sell albums if real fans love them.

“Why can we get Rage Against The Machine to number one to piss Simon Cowell off, but we can’t get bands we love into the charts? People are giving out about it, but they’re not actually buying these albums.”

Breslin’s experience is typical of a young rock act trying to make it in today’s music business.

These days, the only show in town is the one provided by chart-toppers such as Rihanna, Katy Perry and Jay-Z. Rock, as made by young people, is not at the races. A recent report in the British music press revealed that only three rock songs made it into the top 100 singles of 2010 in Britain – and one was a re-release of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, which was first released 29 years ago.

‘‘It is the end of the rock era,” said veteran DJ Paul Gambaccini. ‘‘It’s over, in the same way the jazz era is over. That doesn’t mean there will be no more good rock musicians, but rock as a prevailing style is part of music history.”

In Ireland, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Cheryl Cole ruled the Irish singles charts last year. In 2010’s top 100, only four singles could be classified as rock, and that’s by a rather generous definition: folk-rockers Mumford & Sons featured twice, and the relatively poppy Heathers and Journey (again) made the list.

My David Vann interview from SBP (9th Jan 11)

Cometh the Vann

By Nadine O’Regan

David Vann is in an excellent mood.

Despite the fact that this interview is cutting into his Christmas holiday time, he genuinely doesn’t appear to mind – and he fairly hoots with an embarrassed sort of pleasure when I ask him what it feels like to suddenly be a big-name author.

‘‘It’s really weird,” he says, sounding for a moment quite unlike the Stanford-educated, San Francisco University lecturing author he is – and more like a schoolboy full of wonder.

‘‘For 12 years, I couldn’t get my book even sent out to editors. No agent would send it out. I thought it would never get published. For five and a half years I didn’t write at all because I felt really discouraged. Now, to have two of my books coming out in 13 languages – it’s such a gift. It feels incredible.”

My Ryan Tubridy Interview from SBP

Dreaming of Camelot

31 October 2010

By Nadine O’Regan

Ryan Tubridy is hurrying down the corridors in RTE, looking for a quiet spot to do this interview. He hellos everyone as he passes, offering up quips and waves.

As he continues, despite his fogey-esque, V-neck jumper and down-to-earth manner, a little celebrity sparkle shimmers in his wake, invisible but tangible, light from a passing media star.

We arrive at a small studio, and I wonder if this is where Tubridy does his new 2FM show.

Earlier this year, he took over the bulk of the primetime three-hour morning slot once occupied by his good friend, the late Gerry Ryan.

No, it isn’t, Tubridy says. Would I like to see his studio? Off he leaps down the corridor again, all nervy hustle and bustle, apologising for walking in front of me ‘‘but you don’t know where you’re going’’.

Had he planned it, Tubridy could hardly be offering a more literal interpretation of former Late Late Show host Pat Kenny’s acid line, delivered to the incoming host via the RTE Guide: ‘‘He’s a young man in a terrible hurry.”

This week, that ‘hurry’ continues. At the age of 37, Tubridy has just published his first book, JFK in Ireland: Four Days That Changed a President.

That means that Tubridy is now not only one of RTE’s youngest and most successful broadcasters, but a relatively young first-time author too. (And, no, he didn’t use a ghostwriter.)

Not bad going, then, for a self-confessed ‘‘slightly stuffy, whimsical sort of cynic’’, whose appeal, many felt, would always be too narrow to translate to a mainstream, primetime television audience. Although the interview was planned to tie in with the publication of the book, no advance copy was available, due to a media embargo.

This may suit me better than Tubridy, as it means there is more time to discuss not only his media career, but the topic that the public seems to have an insatiable appetite for – his love life.

Much to his distress, Tubridy is among the few presenters considered fair game by newspaper bosses. His girlfriends have been tailed and extensive broadsheet and tabloid coverage has been devoted to his now seemingly extinguished romance with former Rose of Tralee, Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin.

Everyone, from his own colleagues to fans of his television and radio shows, wants to know the same thing: What happened with Aoibhinn?

Battle of the Broadsheets — the Kiosk

“We’re going to MURDER them. And then laugh. Out loud. And point our fingers at them. And laugh again.”
– Jim Carroll

“Jim who? He’ll be Off the Record after this.”
– John Meagher

TEAM TICKET VS TEAM DAY & NIGHT

On Saturday 11th December 2010 – It’s WAR as teams representing The Indo and The Irish Times lock horns in The Kiosk Quiz of the Year.

Phantom 105.2′s arts and culture show The Kiosk will host a special edition Christmas pop quiz battle on Saturday, December 11th, between The Ticket — the entertainment magazine published weekly by The Irish Times — and Day & Night, the entertainment magazine published on Fridays by The Irish Independent. 

Bracing themselves for battle from Day & Night will be John Meagher (captain), Eamon Sweeney and Nialler9.

Risking their reputations from The Ticket will be Jim Carroll (captain), Sinead Gleeson and Lauren Murphy.

The quizmaster, of course, will be yours truly, with Sarah Anne Murphy as the independent adjudicator and one Mr Johnnie Craig doing the math on the morning.

Armed only with their wits and their terribly short-term journalist memories, our gladiators will be answering questions like the following:

‘Which famous literary figure did Bridget Jones interrupt at a party to ask for directions to the toilet?’

‘Which Irish poet praised Eminem for creating ‘a sense of what was possible’?’

‘What is Hunter S Thompson’s lyrical connection with Brandon Flowers?’ ****

In the words of one revved-up contestant, armed with piles of NME back-issues and a slightly frantic look: “This is WAR!”

It promises to be a great competition – not only for the teams but for a lucky Kiosk listener.  We have a great prize for one listener who correctly predicts the winner of the quiz: a €200 gift voucher from EASONS. To do that, you can email Nadine at kiosk [at] phantom.ie at any time or text us in during the show itself on Saturday on 51052 . All we want you to do is tell us which team, Team Ticket or Team Day & Night will win the Kiosk quiz.  Answers MUST be with us before 11.30am on Saturday 11th December to qualify. 

****Answer A: In the book: Julian Barnes. In the film: Salman Rushdie

**** Answer B: Seamus Heaney

**** Answer C: His quote became the basis of Brandon Flower’s most misunderstood lyric: ‘Are we human… or are we dancer?”

Radio Gaga: where are the women?

Artistic License
22 August 2010

What a horribly depressing week for Irish radio. The pomp and bombast attached to Ryan Tubridy’s move to 2FM this week has singularly failed to obscure the ugly message revealed by RTE’s new autumn radio schedule: there are jobs in Irish national prime-time radio, but women need not apply.

2FM’s weekday schedule is now as follows: Hector O’hEochagáin (7-9am),Tubridy (9am-11am), Colm Hayes (11am-1pm), Larry Gogan (1pm-2pm), Rick O’Shea (2pm-4.30pm),Will Leahy (4.30pm-7pm). Could we get a lady in that line-up? Is the Pope a Protestant?

Female radio presenters in Ireland are like members of an endangered species. With the admittedly notable exception of current affairs programmes, spotting one between 7am and 7pm (the prime advertising hours) on national radio is as likely as seeing a giant panda on Grafton Street.

Women fill in on the summer schedules. They present weekend shows. They get to be on the digital station RTE 2XM, which doesn’t pay its presenters. But they never get a shot at the big time. When I turn on a national station and I hear a female presenter on a non-current affairs programme (covering for someone, of course), I automatically presume she’s going to be terrible, because that’s the message our radio station bosses are transmitting to us. They might as well hold up a giant card saying ‘‘No confidence’’ or ‘‘Danger – female on air!” It really is that bad out there.

Of course, management will tell you, women do appear on the schedules – they are the assistants, the producers, the cheerful weather girls. They pop up on air all the time (giving the lie to the notion that the audience cannot bear to hear a high female voice on air), but they are not allowed to drive the show. In truth, there’s a curious 1950s situation at play on the airwaves. Daddy does the work, Mammy cooks the meals and Baby provides the fun, entertainment segment.

In the case of Ray D’Arcy on Today FM, we almost literally have Daddy and Mammy (Ray and Jenny) with Baby Will, standing in to cover the absence of a genuine screaming infant. It’s 2010 but, on our airwaves, the ladies look pretty while the men do the heavy lifting. What kind of message does that send out to young female radio presenter wannabes? Emigrate, ladies. Britain will serve you better.

Radio station bosses will argue they have no choice – they need to get their JNLR figures up, and they don’t believe female presenters out there are capable of bringing home the prime-time advertising bacon. But, to some extent, they’re missing the point. It’s not enough to sit there judging the likes of Lucy Kennedy, Kathryn Thomas or Alison Curtis. They also need to take a look at the environment they’ve created. Are they actively seeking to nurture female talent? Are they cutting women off at the knees?

It’s overly simplistic – even offensive – to tell people that, if the talent was there, they would harness it. Radio station bosses need to take a good hard look at themselves, and evolve alongside their country.

In the long term, wouldn’t it be worth it if they created the next Marian Finucane? You hear that sound, radio station bosses? Ker-ching! Why, I believe that’s called advertising revenue.

Nadine O’Regan is The Sunday Business Post’s Books and Arts editor. She presents The Kiosk, Dublin station Phantom 105.2’s arts and culture show, every Saturday at 11am

E-mail: nadine@sbpost.ie
Twitter: @nadineoregan