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Friday 25 March saw Bunclody/ Kilmashall group perform The Good Father by Christian O'Reilly at Newry Drama Festival. Adjudicator Brian Marjoribanks spoke of the powerful scenes throughout the production and praised the two actors.
The Adjudicator said "Delighted to actually see the production tonight. I read through it obviously and as I looked at it I noticed that the Druid Theatre company first produced it at the Galway Festival back in 2002. It's remarkable work from this author, It's emotional honesty from the characters he was looking for, would they be honest with one another, and that came across more so in the production tonight, than in the script itself. Massive demands on a cast of only two and I've been mentioning all week that whenever you get a new character coming on stage, it gives the play a lift and a new interest, but only two people have got to do that in this whole productio and they arose very, very much to that challenge. The depth of the characters over the two acts and ten scenes. Could they maintain it? Could they get variety into it as well? Quite a challenge for them. There is humour in it, it's rather wittily written and I thought they captured the wit and the humor of it admirably.
"Some very powerful scenes, the death of a child for example, but equally later on the agressive nature of it between the two of them? How would they portray the characters? Would they be charismatic? Because if she had moaned and whined a bit more than she did, I wouldn't want to know her. And likewise if he had done the same I wouldn't want to know him, but I thought we got a lovely blend, and I thought yes, they're made for one another and yes, I did actually fancy her, and could well understand why she fancied him too."
Marjoribanks continued "I've been saying all week that when we get on stage I want to see visual variety, I want to see every square inch of the stage used. How do you tackle that with only two characters? Well they did, they achieved it, and one of the reasons for that was that they put a table down here sometimes and the action went round about it, a table sometimes cropped up over here, and there was something in the centre of the stage and so the eye went all over this, and I thought that was absolutely ideal to actually see.
"I thought too, that it was extremely well lit, because not only could I see faces clearly, but there were times where they changed the mood and they changed the tone by taking it down and getting it over well.
"Costumes, a lovely range of costumes throughout it and I couldn't believe how quickly they managed to change the costumes. A hiatus between all of those changes would have destroyed the mood and the tone that they had built up to very very well indeed.
Speaking about the sound he added "The opening sound was just a little bit too loud and I also felt too that one of the scenes, Act One Scene Four, the music was held throughout the scene, but it wasn't helping the scene itself. It was lovely at the beginning. I would have brought it back up at the end but I wouldn't have maintained it over the scene. Just something to think about, it didn't enhance it. But the choice of the music right throughout was absolutely splendid. I'll never hear Ring of Fire again ...
Marjoribanks continued "Production wise what did I like about it? Well, it was important they would capture the difference in class between us, between the two of them, and I thought it was beautifully done. We could see the difference in class, we could see the difference of intelligence and these banged off against the other rather nicely in it. Again I've been emphasising all week, what I'm looking for is use of pace, of pause, the building up of a rhythm. They got a lovely rhythm in most of the sequences, most of the acts, most of the scenes, and hence it was so easy for us to follow the story and the tale that was coming through.
"There were some outstanding moments. The pregnant congratulations sequence I thought was handled absolutely excellently and Act One Scene Three, the timing of the double gin and tonic sequence, even the pause there, it was absolutely lovely to watch it being done. I liked the tranquil ending to Act One Scene Three as well, then the movement of them being seated at the table in Act One Scene Four, the way that they got movement actually in a seated position, that was lovely to see too. Then the 'Jasus will you shut up' I thought that sequence delivered absolutely perfectly."
"At the end of Act One Scene Five, I'm scared. It's a beautiful ending to the act and it was so full of meaning that made me think about it. So a lovely ending to Act One and this was maintained throughout the Second Act, the powerful Act Two Scene Two, the death of a child. Not at word was said. They shared their grief and it came across in waves to me.
"In Act Two Scene Three, a minor lighting problem when they were down here was a great pity. That just happened to happen and I'd have left it like that. The fact that you took the light down for no reason, It just disturbed a little bit."
The Adjudicator added "Each facial expression I thought throughout it, particularly from the actress, lovely to see, they were all genuine. When you're pulling faces that are super imposed they mean nothing. I genuinely felt she believed, and I believed every emotion she actually had throughout it and I'm sure that's the combination of the producer and the actress. Then in Scene Four the rest of the scene with him when he just controlled it and no more, I thought it was absolutely excellent. He handled it so very very well. Again throughout that there was a range of facial expressions to die for, that helped the production enormously.
"I mentioned earlier on this week I'm a big believer getting people into triangles on the stage. Did you notice tonight we didn't once have the two of them on the same level of the stage. I believe they never should be at the same level. The more important one should always be marginally up stage and I thought they handled that remarkably well. Other elements too, the visual variety, the way that he got her down on the ground at one point lying there, it changed the visual all together. Then we did the same with him. They got him down much lower as well. The visual variety was really quite remarkable."
The Cast
Marjoribanks continued "June, she dominated from the word go on stage, she seemed so effective. She was so relaxed and so confident, it was lovely to see. I thought the stage movement of herself enhanced her own character remarkably well. Her seduction scene, the one in the first scene, I thought played absolutely beautifully and subtly as well.
"Tim created a lovely believable character. Lovely sense of timing with these comedy lines which came across. Initially I had difficulty understanding the accent but then as I tuned into it and I got it quite nicely later on. When he picked up the pace that's when I got it."
In conclusion the Adjudicator added "Overall, I thought that the team did a very demanding text with a stage crew making a fine contribution to it. A cast of two with considerable talent, they rose to the challenge of it. The Producer got the maximum out of his team and thank you for a special entertaining production from Bunclody so very well done to them."
