Smitten Night Two: Sold Out All Over Again

So the second night of Smitten has come and gone and once again we had to hang the ‘Sold Out’ signs out front (or at least our lovely makeshift and very Devious sold out signs).

The phone call came my way about 4pm again to indicate we were out of tickets for Thursday night, knowing that the tickets we were keeping at the door were all snapped up as well, another surprise for us in what is turning out to be a week of nice surprises.

In changing the technical team for the night the show went off relatively without a hitch, opening at 8:05pm without a spare seat in the house. In what is both good news and bad news it looks like Saturday is pretty much sold out and Friday (as of yesterday evening) was about 4-5 tickets off a sell out, leaving many people scrambling for tickets to catch the show before it closes at the weekend.

If you are looking for tickets we suggest you contact Rollercoaster Records sooner rather than later, due to the limited number of tickets available per night.

Tonight’s show, the third of the run, opens in The Barn at 8pm. Why not catch up with some of the cast afterwards in Cleere’s on Parliament Street. We’d love to meet up with those attending the show, hear your thoughts and have a wee chat before enjoying an aftershow tipple.

Here’s to two more good nights on the stage…

Smitten Opens To Sold-Out House

 

L-R: Jack O’Leary, Kevin Mooney, Niamh Moroney and Annette O’Shea in ‘Smitten’

Smitten, our fourth production, opened last night in The Barn, Kilkenny, to a sold-out house. Managing to up the capacity of the venue late yesterday we’re now seating for 80 patrons and each of the 80 seats disappeared before the show opened last night.It’s great to get a call from the ticket office (and many thanks to Rollercoaster Records in Kieran Street for handling our sales) in the afternoon to say they’re all out of tickets. With a limited number of tickets available on the door, whatever tickets we had for yesterday’s show vanished before the lights went up.

It’s hard to see we’re back at show week again with Trainspotting still in the minds of some of the cast but yet, six weeks on from the Watergate, we’re right back in the thick of it doing what we enjoy most - putting on new theatre in Kilkenny.

Given that opening night far surpassed the expectations of myself, the rest of the committee, cast and crew, we’re advising people not to delay in getting a ticket for Smitten. We won’t be adding any additional shows to the calendar for the week. While we *might* have a very limited number of tickets available on the door, you can still purchase tickets for tonight, Friday night and Saturday night from Rollercoaster Records on Kieran Street in Kilkenny.

This is the only venue tickets are available from during the day. Tickets, while they last, are priced at €10. We’ve enjoyed our opening night and hope that you’ll enjoy the rest of the week.

Ken
Producer / Playing ‘Niall’

All Over Bar The Shouting

Well, Trainspotting has come to a close. The aftershow party has rattled a few bodies right to the bone, we’ve been left reeling from some of the feedback heard so far and we’re gradually pieceing together our thoughts on the past week.

Speaking once more as a committee member, actor and having worked as producer on this production, I still find words escaping me as how to explain the events of the past few days.

Taking a bold step to speak on the behalf of the company, we deviants extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who came along to Trainspotting and all who enjoyed the production. Without doubt this has been our biggest challenge to date but reactions and feedback have by far exceeded any remote expectaion we may have had before opening the curtain last Tuesday night.

We’ll be posting reviews, comments from the cast and crew, photographs from the course of the week and opening up a few new areas on the website with an archive of Trainspotting material.

We’re taking a week off for ourselves before breaking into pre-production for our next show, due to open late August. It’s all over bar the shouting, but if any of the cast and crew still have voices after the weekend’s celebrations then it will be a minor miracle.

Once again, thanks to each and every one of you who shared in the Trainspotting experience. I genuinely hope you enjoyed it as much as we did in putting everything together.

We’ll be back later in the week with more.

Ken

Due To Arrive: Rehearsals, Week 8

So we’re nearly there, a week off our arrival in the Watergate Theatre. Fucking hell, it’s been a quick two months.

All the posters have been completed. All 10 of the bastards. A serious amount of props and kudos must go out to our own Paddy Dunne for the serious hard work and graft he’s put into the poster designs for Trainspotting. I’d go out on a limb and say, not only are they wonderfully representative of the characters who populate Irvine Welsh’s work and create a perfect sense of the world they inhabit but they’ve done a great job of not stepping on the toes of the film incarnations. A hell of an achievement all round Paddy, and it was a pleasure to work on them with you.

Months ago, myself, Paddy and Niamh really busted our asses as we entered pre-production on establishing the style of this play, its colour scheme and the general design scheme. Months on from that, we’re happy with how it’s worked out. I think it’s going to be quite a unique interpretation and hopefully in line with what Harry Gibson wanted to achieve with Trainspotting on the stage. Part of our approach was trying to move away from the film but another part of it is trying to establish a truly unique theatrical experience and I’m confident we’re going to achieve that.

Rehearsal wise, we’ve finished all our blocking and now the actors are polishing their performances and generally tightening up their scenes. They’re a great bunch, and I can genuinely say, the best bunch of actors I’ve ever worked with on any production. Ever. Full stop. And that includes any other amateur, college or professional shows. And if I may sound not too professional about it, I can’t wait for the few post show drinks with this lot. When you’re dealing with subject matter as dark and intense as that in Trainspotting, it really helps to be with a bunch of people who can keep things light hearted and they really are a funny bunch of fuckers…. Yup, top cunts all round.

Speaking of which, we should really have brought a swear jar into rehearsals. Everybody has grown sailor’s mouths since production started and it’s a bit scary how desensitized we’ve become to really hardcore swearing. Between our foul mouths and our suitably degenerated costumes we should form quite a scary proposition for people post show each night. And of course, our poor families.

In many ways, I think everything is gonna seem a little tasteless after Trainspotting, it’s been a hell of a ride for all of us at Devious. Much better than Kilkenny to Athy, that’s for sure.

Of course, as Mark Renton advocates, the importance of preparation is key and we’ve been frantically scurrying about trying to get everything in shape. Myself, Paddy, Niamh, Kev and Ken have been trying to make sure that boats haven’t been missed on the program or PR front and it seems to be quite smoothly building word of mouth. All boats have been caught but forget boats from now on, trains all the way!

But hopefully that will show how ingrained this show has become into our waking hours! And I think our living, breathing and walking of Irvine Welsh’s work will show up onstage. But there’s a week to go, lots more needs to be done. We haven’t quite arrived yet but we’re due to…

Tickets for Trainspotting are still booking at The Watergate Theatre, the number is (056) 7761674 and the dates are June 24th – 28th. I hope to see you there.

John Morton

Co-Director

Trainspotting

P.S. As a recommendation, for anyone who hasn’t read it, Irvine Welsh’s PORNO, the sequel to TRAINSPOTTING, is a fantastic read. Myself and Paddy have been knuckling into it the past few weeks and I can’t recommend it highly enough. This is my second read of it and it’s still so fresh and well written. I just hope they make it into a movie… fuck Ewan McGregor.

I’ve Got My Tickets, How About You?

Well, ok, I don’t have tickets for the show. The only reason being is that I’m actually in the show. But we’ve had a few questions recently via email as to how people can book tickets for the show. So in case you’ve missed the notes around the site and in the press that bookings are currently open at The Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny, you can book tickets

• By calling into the Watergate Theatre box office on Parliament Street in Kilkenny
• Over the phone / by credit card by phoning the box office on +353 56 7761674

The Watergate can post tickets out to you until the week of the show, or you can pay for your tickets in advance and collect them at the box office on or before the performance night.

Don’t forget, we’re running from June 24 to June 28, the show starts at 8pm nightly and you should be able to join us for pints across in Cleere’s from about 10pm onwards. You’re buying the first round by the way. After all, we’re just humble, broke actors in this game for the sheer love of it. That and the adrenaline rush of course.

Tommy Says Rehearsals Are Barry, Ken?

So the rehearsal process continues at Devious Towers (our super sexy rehearsal location smack in the middle of Kilkenny). What with the bank holiday weekend upon us, this week has been pretty intensive so far, and continues to be with two more lengthy rehearsals scheduled for tonight (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday).

Speaking from an actors point of view (I’m playing Tommy, don’t you know) I’ve had a reasonable week thus far, knocking out accent kinks wherever possible with the daes and wis, naes and likesays, ye ken?

Proper junkies that we are, we’re also weening ourselves off scripts this week - at least for the scenes that have been blocked, and blocked, and drilled into your head. Next week should see the entire play blocked off, scripts binned, full props at the ready and regular runs of the show set for the following week.

We’ve also got our press hats on this week (what a scoop!) so expect a flurry of activity over the coming week with regional and national press releases, sneak photos from the rehearsal process and more promotional posters than you could shake a stick at. Or a fist. Or a Scottish flag.

I’m sure there’ll be someone along soon to fill you in on how the week continues to go. In the meantime, enjoy your lunch on this fine Wednesday afternoon.

Ken

Trainspotting: Character Promo - Begbie

“Ah’m no they type a cunt thit goes lookin’ fir bother, likes” - Franco Bebgie

The third in our series of character posters for Trainspotting shows Niall Sheehy as Franco Begbie for our upcoming production of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. A violent sociopath, Begbie terrorizes his “friends” into going along with whatever he says, assaulting and brutalizing anyone who angers him. This violence is reflected in the manner in which he speaks. He is the only one in the group who does not use heroin and, although he considers junkies to be the lowest form of life, he is himself thoroughly addicted to alcohol, amphetamine, and violence.

Niall is a newcomer to The Devious Theatre Company, having worked previously with Dreamstuff Theatre (as the majority of us have over the last seven years).

These character posters for Trainspotting serve to introduce the many faces of Irvine Welsh’s work, or even reintroducing them to people familiar with the previous incarnations of the characters.

As designed by Paddy Dunne, the posters will be unveiled in the weeks leading up to the performance. Other posters to come along in the series (collect them all!) include Renton, Tommy, Diane, Lizzie, Sick Boy and Mother Superior.

Tickets for Trainspotting are already available in The Watergate Theatre and can be purchased at 056 – 7761674.

Trainspotting will arrive onstage from June 24th to the 28th.

Happy Birthday Devious Theatre

Well, how could we let this one slip by? Quite possibly in the mix of all the Trainspotting activity going on at the moment and having the entire Devious Theatre crew running around like headless chickens the past few weekends, we forgot to mention - and raise a glass to the fact - that The Devious Theatre Company is now two years old!

Yes, turning the clock back to 2006 when a select few of us at the time (myself - Ken - , John, Kevin and Niamh) had just finished work on a production with Dreamstuff theatre out of Young Irish Film Makers, the decision was made to spark a theatrical revolution in our fair city.

Copious amounts of tea, breakfast meetings, dinner meetings, secret ballots, white smoke, red smoke, morse code and more were used but within a week or two of the production finishing, we had our new theatre company established and had already started work on a new (and as it turns out afterwards, unperformed) production.

Swapping one production and one venue for an original and comedic piece of genius in the guise of Heart Shaped Vinyl and bringing theatre back to Cleere’s in Kilkenny, The Devious Theatre Company was born and the rest, as they say, is history…

Living history at that as we haven’t taken the foot off the pedal once in two years.

Just like this time last year (well, May 9th if we’re going to get all official about it), we “missed the boat” (to use a much-loved DT phrase) on celebrating our birthday. Alas, such is the joy of running a theatre company. But we’re a nice bunch really.

So to mark our second birthday, I would like to take the opportunity to those who have helped us along the road in the past two years - the Arts Office here in Kilkenny, Johnny Holden and the staff at Cleere’s Theatre, Ger Cody and the staff at the Watergate Theatre, John Cleere, Paddy Dunne, Edwina Grace, Tess Felder, Pius Meaghar, Eddie Brennan, Alan Dawson, Michael Keogh, Stephen Colfer, Colm Sheenan, Richie Cody and those who worked alongside the company on Heart Shaped Vinyl through it’s many iterations in 2006 and 2007, Jason McHugh and those behind Cannibal! The Musical!, local and regional media including KCLR96FM, The Kilkenny People, Voice and Advertiser, The Munster Express, KilkennyMusic.com, Mycrofilms, our beloved Coffee Club (RIP) and their wonderful staff, Kate St John, Young Irish Film Makers and everyone else we’ve worked with over the past two years.

We strive to entertain you and continue to promote new, fresh and original pieces of theatre.

We’re performing Trainspotting (if you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere you might have missed that bit of news) this June 24 to June 28 and hope to return with another original production this coming August (dates TBC). Come out and see us some time, introduce yourself, then hang around for the aftershow parties.

Trust me.

They’re WELL worth it.

Happy Birthday Devious Theatre!

Trainspotting Auditions Close

The audition period for Trainspotting has come to a close, casting decisions being made this weekend. We hope to have an announcement of the cast online come Sunday night.

Trainspotting, the first production on our 2008 programme of theatre, runs from June 24th to June 28th in the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. Booking queries (groups and individuals) may be directed to the box office at the Watergate Theatre by phoning +353 56 7761674.

Website Relaunch

To coincide with the announcement of the first part of our 2008 program of theatre, we’ve also relaunched DeviousTheatre.com!

Not only that, but we’ve got a spritely new look to our formerly humble MySpace abode so now there’s plenty of reason to hang around and stare in awe of our Devious artwork.

Within the new sections of DeviousTheatre.com we’ve added a photo gallery and information (and photos) on our faire committee. If you would like to get in touch with us for any reason, please fill out our contact form here and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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