The Local
by Medb Lambert, Emma O’Grady and Clare Monnelly
Asylum & Kilkenny Arts Festival in association with Once Off Productions and Watergate Theatre
Directed by Dónal Gallagher and Janice de Bróithe with movement by Cindy Cummings, sound by Cormac O’Connor
There’s 50p on the pool table, Sinéad is ripping up the Pope, Féile’s going to get messy and Ireland is on the brink of cataclysmic social change...
The Local is an immersive soap opera. It’s 28 August 1992. The pub is the epicentre of Irish culture. Ireland is a drunken teenager.
We’re about to grow up and leave home and take responsibility for ourselves. The craic is exponential and the only way is up.
Little did we know we were heading for a crash.
We should have seen it coming.
Following on from the success of the award-winning Big Chapel X, Asylum Productions return with their unique production style bringing local actors, community groups and professional performers and artists together.
Please note: not suitable for under 16s.
16 and 17-year-olds must be accompanied by an adult.
CAST
Declan ‘Deckie’ Butler Kyle English
Larry Byrne Michael Somers
William ‘Woolly’ Byrne Patrick McDonald
Marie Byrne Susie Lamb
Fergus ‘Banger’ Byrne James Quigley
Young Sinéad Caffery Shannon O’Doherty
Sinéad Caffery Gillian McCarthy
Mick Caffery John Lennon
Helen Delaney Natasha Murray
Dessie Delaney Jeff Gormly
Marguerite ‘Ma’ Dunne Geraldine Roantree
Susan Fitzpatrick Fern Kealy
Emma Fitzpatrick Annie Conway / Orla McCabe / JuJu Perche
Paul Fitzpatrick Neil Sheehy
Martina Fitzpatrick Emma O’Grady
Damien ‘Chucky’ Hennessy Donal Forristal
Noel Phelan Derek Dooley
SÃle Phelan Joanne Bracken
Seánie Quigley Eanna Grogan
The Priest Michael Morris
The Stranger Claudia Morawski
CREATIVE TEAM
Writers Medb Lambert, Clare Monnelly & Emma O’Grady
Director Donal Gallagher
Co-Director Janice de Broithe
Movement Director Cindy Cummings
Sound Designer Cormac O’Connor
Costume Designer Medb Lambert
Hair Val Sherlock
Make-up Michael Browne
Assistant Director (Intern) Sarah Joan Kelly
Producer Sadhbh Barrett Coakley
Senior Producer Maura O’Keeffe
Production Manager Pete Jordan
Assistant Production Manager Francesca de Buyl
Production Assistant Andrew Crowley
Production Assistant (Intern) Nell Snyder
Production Assistant (Intern) Lina Lambert
Costume Aoife Lyons
Stage Manager Zoë Reynolds
Assistant Stage Manager Delia Lowery
MANY THANKS TO:
Donal, Joan and Felix and the Sheridan family for being the best hosts we could possibly wish for; the Once Off crew for once again being number One; Kilkenny Arts Festival for ongoing support, and for ‘shopping local’; The Watergate Theatre for supporting local artists to make work; our amazing crew volunteers Sarah, Nell and Lina for jumping into multiple rolls on and off the ‘stage’; KCAT for ongoing support; Donna Murphy and Jean O’Hanlon at Camphill Carrick-on-Suir; Lamber De Bie for the cortage (sorry, ‘corsage’); John and David and the Every Event team; Pauline and the staff at Knockdrinna for keeping us fed; Kingsriver Community for parking; Trasna Productions and The Powerhouse for audition space; John Doyle for the pool table; John Lennon for additional props; Eileen Brophy, Helen Comerford, David Lambert & Mary Gallagher Cooke for keeping the home fires burning; parents of Annie, Orla and JuJu; all the locals at the Local for putting up with us all; big thank you to the additional actors and others who helped out in the development of the show in KAF 2022: Liam Hickey, Jack Kennedy, Aoibhin Murphy, Paul Sheehan, TJ Slattery, Eleanor Walsh and Jessica Walsh, and to The Corner House & The Steppes Bar in Callan, and Cleeres in Kilkenny, for hosting us along the way; estate agents Robbie Grace and Ciaran Dunphy for help with the pub hunting; Irish Theatre Institute for development space; and the Arts Council of Ireland for making it all possible.
PROGRAMME NOTE
The Local is a time machine. It will take us back to 1992, to an Ireland fresh from the glory of Italia‘90 and a million miles from marriage equality. To a time when the pub was at the centre of the community, and the church was moving to the periphery. The purpose of this play, in some ways, is to retrace our steps, and go back to the past to understand ourselves better today.
Today, 90s nostalgia is everywhere especially in fashion and music. So when we began writing this - all three of us being 80s/90s kids - it was a time we remembered clearly and fondly. But it wasn’t long before the social and cultural context looming over our pub and our characters sent a shiver down our spines. 1992 was on the cusp of change, where for a brief period two Irelands co-existed. It was a time when we knew, but we didn’t. When we hoped, but we daren’t.
We began writing this play together in 2020 as three women in three corners of this island (Dublin, Galway and Kilkenny) united by the glow of a computer screen and a grá for a story well told. For drama and stakes and humour in the darkness. It was pure escape when we all needed it.
We didn’t know if we’d ever be in a pub - as we knew it - ever again.
And then all of a sudden there was a venue and a cast and a real embodied soap opera in the middle of Kilkenny starting to emerge with a story and stories that wanted to be told.
And now you’re here to witness them.
Thank you,
Medb Lambert
Clare Monnelly
Emma O’Grady