SMITTEN - Dave and Bronagh

“You Were Right About The Stars”
A Short Story from Smitten
How long can the shopping possibly take? Why, there could be queues or a shortage of plastic bags or maybe someone crashed an airplane into Superquinn or one of the cashiers went crazy and shot the place up? Or else the person doing the shopping could be shit faced drunk and have left the shopping at the bar in the Pumphouse, squashing eggs and bursting milk cartons by accident the drunker he gets.

Bronagh peered through the curtains and really wished that she had done the shopping herself. She’s much too pregnant to be out and about doing the shopping. I wish I did it, she thought. But you didn’t Bronagh so why don’t you sit your pretty little self and your pretty little bump down and have a cup of tea and a whole heap of those mini Crunchies you keep eating. Not the big ones, it has to be the little ones. Only the little ones will do.

Where is he? Out to do the shopping he said. Won’t take long at all he said. Well it has taken long. Too long… by far. And when you’re a man trying to stay on the wagon, too long becomes unbearable for the person sitting at home. And Bronagh was the person at home. She wasn’t sitting though, not a chance. She was exactly like one of those girlfriends she swore she’d never become. The ones who stand at windows and wait and wait and wait. Outside the window there’s nothing, not even the stars to look up at. She tries to find something else to do… but options are limited when 8 months worth of baby growth is after happening in her womb. She’s still afraid of her lump bursting open like an alien, escaping from inside like some horrendous scene from a schlocky horror movie. That’s what’s been happening in her dreams of late. She’d wake up caked in sweat, panting heavily with her hands steadfastly cradling her bump. But Dave would always be there, rubbing her head and getting water for her.

That’s the Dave she needs. Not the old one. Not the old one at all. He was too drunk, too messy, too unattentive. She loved him, loved him she did. But she quietly lost patience. She dragged him home on her slight frame many times when he was too drunk to move. She cleaned his stomach lining up from the sink one time after a particularly horrendous bender. He fell asleep hanging over the banister of the stairs. She didn’t have the strength to move him so she just left him there. All the nights of turning him over because she’d be afraid he’d puke in his sleep and die, just like Hendrix did. Just like a lot of people did in fact. What a horribly undignified way to go, she thought, choking to death on your own vomit. At least it’s better than a baby bursting out of your stomach though.

Especially if it tried to strangle her with placenta. She tries not to think of death by placenta. That’s even more undignified than the puke. She’s trying to think of who she should call…. or if she should call… or if she should run out into the streets screaming ‘Dave! Dave!’ with her arms flailing.

At the exact moment she’s fiddling with the curtain and thinking of all those bad things she hears the key slide into the lock. A rush of relief washes through her like if a dam had burst or even her waters had broke. But she’d best not think of that right now. She didn’t want to greet Dave with broken waters and incoming babies. Especially when he had such a sheepish look on his face, struggling with the shopping bags. ‘Sorry’ he said ‘I dropped into me ma’s for a cup of tea.’ She wanted to run and hug him but she probably wouldn’t be able to fully reach her arms around him, what with the bump and everything.

Tickets for Smitten are on sale NOW in Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street and they are 10EURO. The show runs August 20 – 23 and starts 8pm nightly. For more information and updates, check out www.devioustheatre.com

Smitten Tickets On Sale

Tickets have just gone on sale for our latest production, Smitten. They can be bought from the good folks at Rollercoaster Records on Kieran Street and they cost 10EURO. Tickets can be booked on 056 – 7763669.

Smitten will open in just under 3 weeks time and will run for 4 nights from Wednesday August 20^th to Saturday August 23^rd at 8pm nightly. All information and updates on the show can be found on our website, Bebo and Myspace sites.

The show will be performed in The Barn, Church Lane, Kilkenny.

The Barn is a studio space that lies right in the heart of medieval Kilkenny. Located in Church Lane, directly behind St. Canice’s Cathedral, the building was formerly home to the old Loreto Convent. The space was developed by Barnstorm Theatre Company who have used it for performance and rehearsal over the years. It is located directly behind The Good Sheperd Centre building and we’re delighted to be able to bring a Devious crowd into one of the best performance spaces in Kilkenny.

Please click on our Smitten themed map to The Barn above for further orientation!

SMITTEN - St Canice’s Credit Union Window Display

It’s only a few short weeks since we raised some eyebrows and furrowed some brows on High Street, with an awesome display of ‘Trainspotting’ posters in St Canice’s Credit Union window, and already we’re back again.

This week will see us taking things up a notch promotion-wise in the run up to ‘Smitten’, with press releases issued to all local print media and a brand-new window display to feast your eyes on. If you’re around High Street over the next week then make sure and stop by the Credit Union for a less stomach-turning Devious display. A collage of scenic shots featuring Kilkenny landmarks by Eddie Brennan, logos, maps, artwork and posters by Paddy Dunne and behind-the-scenes-snaps by myself and Ken McGuire.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it down to the Credit Union this week, you can check out shots of the display here on the Devious Theatre Bebo Page along with behind-the-scenes snaps at ‘Smitten’ rehearsals and there’s still plenty more displays and promotional material to come.

Tickets for Smitten are being sold in Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street from 21st of July and they are 10EURO. The show runs August 20 – 23 and starts 8pm nightly. For more information and updates, check out www.devioustheatre.com

SMITTEN Announcement

SMITTEN
1. struck, as with a hard blow.
2. grievously or disastrously stricken or afflicted.
3. very much in love.

Following on from the success of Trainspotting, we are proud to announce another first for Kilkenny theatre this coming August. Smitten by John Morton will premiere in The Barn, Church Lane, Kilkenny on Wednesday August 20th and will run until Saturday August 23rd.

John Morton previously wrote Devious Theatre’s first production Heart Shaped Vinyl back in 2006 and this marks his second play to premiere for Devious Theatre. The play is being directed by Colm Sheenan, who has worked extensively with the group in the past.

Smitten depicts a tragicomic series of loosely interlinked vignettes set in Kilkenny City over a succession of rainy summer nights. The play takes its cues from the short stories of Raymond Carver and the films of Woody Allen (the early funny ones that is). The characters at the core of Smitten are trying to get their bearings in life, each stuck in their own limbo. The realities of adult life are dealing a harsh blow to the best laid plans, in a way that leaves them totally smitten… in all the meanings of the word.

Alcoholism. Pregnancy. Testicular Cancer. Apathy. Doomed Relationships.
Sock Puppets. Those elusive mystery girls. How to dance to Bruce Springsteen. And rain. Lots of rain. Smitten functions as a theatrical collage, with intertwining narratives and varying forms of narrative giving life to the comic and often tragic stories that litter the rainy streets of Kilkenny City.

The Barn is a studio space that lies right in the heart of medieval Kilkenny. Located in Church Lane, directly behind St. Canice’s Cathedral, the building was formerly home to the old Loreto Convent. The space was developed by Barnstorm Theatre Company who have used it for performance and rehearsal. Devious Theatre are delighted to be the first theatre group outside of Barnstorm to make use of one of the finest performance venues in Kilkenny City.

Tickets for Smitten are being sold in Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street from 21st of July and they are 10EURO. The show runs August 20 – 23 and starts 8pm nightly. For more information and updates, check out www.devioustheatre.com

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