Summer

Spring

Can Poster Will Poster

We're just about 4 weeks off the opening night of Devious Theatre's production of Dario Fo's Can't Pay? Won't Pay! and business is really starting to pick up.

I've been working on the play for the last couple of months in terms of development and rewriting the script. Since January I've had the good fortune to be directing the show. It's the second part of our Dario Fo Season and so far it's the biggest project we've undertaken as Devious Theatre. It's pretty much been a non stop Dario Fo fest since we launched the project back in August 2009.

This week we unveiled the final poster for the play, as designed by the wizard that is Paddy Dunne and it features the first reveal of the cast of Can't Pay? Won't Pay!

Here you see the shoplifting duo Antonia and Margherita (Angela Barrett and Hazel Fahy), their husbands Giovanni and Luigi (Ken McGuire and Ross Costigan) and the hapless Inspector (David Thompson)

I've just posted a new rehearsal blog over on www.DeviousTheatre.com. You can check it out here. Keep and eye on that there sight for all other info and bits and pieces on the production.

It runs 10th - 14th March in the Set Theatre, John Street, Kilkenny.

Can't Pay? Won't Pay!

Rocking into my first big theatrical project for 2010 and it's the second part of Devious Theatre's Dario Fo Season. This time it's his 1974 comedy Can't Pay? Won't Pay!

A wild farce about shoplifting, unemployment and standing up for yourself against government forces, it's my second crack of the whip at directing a Dario Fo play after Accidental Death Of An Anarchist back in December. I was delighted with how that play was received, the audiences were more than healthy and we got some really lovely notices. So I'm hoping this one can trump it.

We've assembled another fantastic cast and crew and I couldn't be happier with them unless they could do the get in in 10 minutes or had their lines off tomorrow. This time out the cast will consist of Angela Barrett, Ross Costigan, Hazel Fahy, Ken McGuire and Paul Young. They've already sat in for our first cast reading and recording which were followed by the start of rehearsals this week.

I'll be blogging the rehearsal process over on Devioustheatre.com so if you're interested in the progression of the play, that's where I'll be documenting it. As will the rest of the team in what we hope will be a good sustained campaign of bloggination.

Can't Pay? Won't Pay! by Dario Fo will hit the Set Theatre, John Street, Kilkenny from 10th - 14th March 2010 at 8pm nightly. You can grab your tickets over on the website and the printed versions should be hitting Rollercoaster Records in the next week.

Accidental Death Of An Anarchist Revs Up

Time has flown like a motherfucker and I've barely had time to catch my breath and get together a few words about Devious Theatre's upcoming Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. The first play in our upcoming Dario Fo Season.

It's been a tremendously exciting process so far and I still haven't got over the giddy excitement of the fact that I'm directing a Dario Fo play and generally getting to immerse myself in the world and work of the great man for 6 months. Well, 4 months now because once we close up shop on this one, I'll be directing the next production in the Dario Fo Season, Can't Pay? Won't Pay!

Ahhhh, too much excitement, too little time to write coherently.

Anyway, I'll be blogging about the show from this Monday on Devioustheatre.com so I'll be able to give a bit more insight into how the production is running. So do keep an eye out for that. And it won't be just me, all our cast and crew will be giving their own insights into the play and we'll have a fine selection of bits and pieces to show off.

The show itself hits the Set Theatre, John Street Kilkenny from December 2nd - 6th.

All information on the production can be found over on Devioustheatre.com

These two wonderful Saul Bass tinted posters are again, the work of Mr. Paddy Dunne.

The Long Goodbye

With a teary eye, the final episode of Vultures has just gone online.

'The Long Goodbye' is the concluding part of our comic detective serial and follows on from the events of 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'

The episode is synopsised as thus:

'With Isabelle Vultour captured and the Pinkertons establishing their firm grip on the town, the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. must concoct a plan to get Isabelle back, stick it to the Pinkertons and for Vultour and McGrain... avoid a threesome with Natalie Blaise? But in order to do so they must rally the troops. And the actions of the bullying Pinkertons has ensure that there's plenty of volunteers. This is it. The final battle. The detective apocalypse. Who will reign supreme? Who will prove to the best detective force in town? Or will it all descend into a terrible mess? This is the long goodbye, where the goodbyes are long and the farewells are hard.'



Thanks so much to all the cast and crew who worked on Vultures over the past 2 years, without you we wouldn't have a low budget webcom!

Also, a big thanks to the people who have watched it and have supported the show since we first shot and screened that first episode in Christmas week back in December 2007. We're glad to have reached the end of the road with it, it's been a hell of a journey and this is a rather fitting goodbye. A long one.

Running, Laughing, Solving...

Here's our Vultures flashback picture that was first glimpsed at the end of 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'.

It shows our happy, smiling, group of teen detectives before things went very wrong.

L-R: Isabelle Vultour, Jim Vultour, Natalie Blaise (with Marlowe), Dan McGrain.

You'll see more from these Enid Blyton inspired scamps when the trailer for Vultures Episode 7 'The Long Goodbye' goes online this Sunday, September 27th.

The Pinkertons Have Attacked!

The penultimate episode of Vultures 'Attack Of The Pinkertons' has just gone online. And here it is!

This is the first of our two part finale that will conclude with 'The Long Goodbye' on October 4th.

We had the screening for cast and crew on Saturday night and it was lovely to bring the series to a close with everyone who worked on it. People who we are enternally indebted to. The sheer exhaustion of finishing has been helped by the nice feeling of accomplishment in completing the series and telling the story we wanted to tell. It was a tough, long haul and we learnt many lessons, and indeed probably would do it completely differently but it was worth it. Which is really all that counts.

If you believe in the Pinkertons then you've probably seen their campaign popping up around the place and their website has been spruced up too. Here's some photos from the campaign as taken by Ross Costigan, who has provided fine acting, photography and directing throughout the project. Enjoy!

Oh, and keep an eye out for the Episode 7 teaser trailer which will go online this Sunda

Vultures 6 & 7 Title Cards

We've just got our hands on the title cards for the upcoming Vultures finale. As is usually the case, Paddy Dunne has done another sterling job in representing the episodes in a fine display of design and fancy lettering.

Our idea for the Attack Of The Pinkertons title card was to go a little Manga on the look. And of course, pink. Which is quite befitting of the storyline in which the Pinkertons finally open shop and start their campaign to take over our little unnamed town. Our remit for this episode was to load up on the action and of course, we're suckers for Manga so we thought it'd be a nice look for what's shaping up to be our most violently cartoonish episode.

The title card for The Long Goodbye is a little more noirish and does a good job of evoking the sense that this is the final hooray for Vultures. We went a little 40's noir on this as the episode itself has plenty of smoky bars, subterfuge, femme fatales and indeed, goodbyes.

Attack Of The Pinkertons goes online on Sunday September 20th.
The Long Goodbye will follow 2 weeks later when it brings all matters to an end on Sunday October 4th.

I'll be posting a few bits and pieces here in the run up but as usuall, all things Vultures can be found over on www.VulturesPI.com

The Pinkertons Are Coming...

We've just launched the trailer for the penultimate episode of Vultures 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'.

We've kept up the idea of using the trailers to bridge the gaps (and there have been long, long gaps) between episodes. But this one is kinda short and sweet. Which after the last few talk heavy trailers is a nice change. Although the Dragnet thing is very overdone at this stage, it was something we really wanted to indulge ourselves with. So here it is!



'Attack Of The Pinkertons' is just abouts finished and we're still beavering away on its sister episode 'The Long Goodbye' which will be taking a bow 2 weeks later on October 4th. And that'll be us done. But instead of me going on about it, here's the synopsis from the website:

"Entitled Attack Of The Pinkertons, the episode sees the newly unemployed gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. reacting badly to the Pinkertons opening for business. Unemployed and underground (well, in Tennyson’s house), Vultour and McGrain are intent on eluding the clutches of their old friend Natalie Blaise. Tennyson however is looking for a peaceable resolution, no doubt with a strong mug of scald and a chat involved. However, Natalie Blaise doesn’t seem to be open to dialogue. The Pinkertons are making their presence felt. And people are getting hurt. Can V.P.I. regroup and fight back? Will Natalie Blaise emerge from the shadows to explain herself in a long winded villainous fashion? Or is she merely just misunderstood? And what will Tennyson do to fill in the unemployed hours?

All these questions and more will be answered when the action packed denouement of the Vultures series goes online on the 20th of September.

All will be finally resolved two weeks later when our final instalment The Long Goodbye brings the series to a close on October 4th."

This episode is probably the one we're least complainy about. The first couple of episodes have suffered from all pratfalls associated with doing something as a part time project but with the last 3 episodes we've had a chance to refine it and get closer to what we want to achieve.

We'll be ramping up the promo campaign for the two final Vultures episodes in the coming weeks. Ideally, we'd have Pinkertons attacking people on the street but we're not too sure what the legalities of that just yet.

Meet Quint Quigley

Quint Quigley (Kevin Mooney)

The profile for the fugitive stoner from 'The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm' has just gone online over at that very page.

Quigley was one of our favourite characters on page. We'd never had anything as exciting as a fugitive to work with and we wanted to flesh him out into something different than what we'd done before. So, yeah, stoner comedy and fart jokes. Voila, there he is. And we liked the idea that a fugitive who initiates a chase episode would in fact be completely brain fried and slow.

Our grand plan was for Quint to be the resident tech nut for V.P.I. Kinda like their equivalent of Q in the James Bond series. Hence, the name. Q central. But we never really got around to loading Quigley up with all the cool homemade implements that we wanted him to design. And he never did get to give V.P.I. cool gadgets to fight the Pinkertons with. But we did manage to get him across as a stoned and paranoid conspiracy theorist. So at least that base was covered. And thanks to Kevin Mooney for keeping that moustache for 3 months. Legend.

Quigley will be making his return in the forthcoming 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'. There'll be more announcements on that tres soon. In blog form! In the meantime, enjoying getting to know Quint a little bit better.

Thanks to Ross Costigan for another lovely profile capture in our ever expanding micro universe.

Meet The Hardy Lads

Shane and Nicky Hardy (Peter O'Connor and Geoff Warner Clayton)

A character profile for these two young scamps just went online over on the Vultures website.

Introduced in Episode 5 'The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm', the Hardy's are two young scamps caught keying cars by Janine. Janine evidently saw something in them as she's recruited them to help her out with her own detective business, The Janine Drew Agency. You can find out more about these thick yet enthusiastic teens here. And you can watch The Janine Drew Agency in action here.

The boys are obviously based on teen detectives The Hardy Boys, much in the same way that Janine is partly based on Nancy Drew. We thought a modern Irish, slightly stupid and chav friendly version of the characters might be a nice twist. Spot the difference:

And yeah, there's a bit of Scooby Doo in there as well. It's a good look though.

There'll be a lot more from this lot in the upcoming Vultures 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'.

The Janine Drew Agency

We've started the promotional push for the upcoming sixth installment of Vultures 'Attack Of The Pinkertons'.

And the first thing we've launched is a website and promo advert for everyone's favourite teen chav detective, Janine Drew. Janine has decided to branch out and using all the smarts and business acumen she's attained during her Transition Year run, she's set up her own business. It's an after school detectve project entitled The Janine Drew Agency. And she's even got her own website www.JanineDrewAgency.com



She's joined by Shane and Nicky Hardy, two wayward young dopes who she's coralled into helping her. These lads have fliers and everything. It's pretty obvious who these three teen detectives are based on but hey, half the fun is in the inspiration.

Of course with three rival detective agencies operating in the land of Vultures, there's no doubt that all tensions will come to a head in Episode 6. The Janine Drew Agency are also relevant to another little subplot we've got going so do keep tuned to see where it all leads.

On the website you'll find Janine's promo videos and find her blog. Which should no doubt be a source of constant flashing fonts and sparkling icons.

'Attack Of The Pinkertons' is coming soon, real soon... Watch your backs.

Church On Time: Stags and Hens Closes

The Devious Theatre Company wrapped Stags and Hens on Saturday night with a heavy, Red Bull accelerated heart. It was without a doubt my favourite production to work on so far in the three years of Devious Theatre. From an actors perspective, I never had as much fun working on a text. Probably because it was the first time I hadn't written, adapted, rewritten or polished something. The cringe factor was out the window on this one. And it was great to take a well written and finely tuned piece of writing and apply the acting process to it. And also to bring something as colourful, fun and relevant as Stags and Hens to a Kilkenny audience was a real joy.

The cast were extremely tight knit and close in a way that none of our casts had been before. I don't mean physically close although with that final scene in the hallway there's definitely a case to by made. But the chemistry was great and it really helped the final product.

Anyway, it's all done and dusted now and put to bed. We got some great feedback, great audiences and wonderful support from a lot of people. Ken has documented all of this in a blog he's just written over on the website, which can be viewed right here.

With all bases covered, I want to say a personal thanks to an amazing cast of actors, a fantastic committed crew and a very special thanks to a wonderfully supportive and talented director in Kevin Mooney.



So until the next Devious Theatre production, tarar. And hey, we're not done for 2009. Not by a long shot. Oh no. It is my dream to play a judge...

The Big Day Approaches...

I've just posted a new blog about our final preparations leading into our upcoming production of Stags and Hens. You can find it here over on DeviousTheatre.com

I'll post something a little bit more detailed leading into next week. Right now, everything is busy, busy, busy and it's very exciting. By the by, the play runs in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny from July 21st - 25th. But don't read about it here, everything you'd need to know and more is over on the website.

Stags and Hens: The Cast

The Blood Brothers Featuring Peter Taylor (Eddie Murphy)

The Roadie (Paul Young)

Bernie and Eddy (Ciara Donegan and Ken McGuire)

Robbie and Billy (Myself and Stephen Colfer)

Linda (Roisin O'Reilly)

Dave (John Doran)

Carol and Maureen (Lynsey Moran and Mairead Kiernan)

Kav and Frances (Geoff Warner Clayton and Maria Murray)

The character intros in full can be viewed on www.devioustheatre.com. All these lovely promo images were designed by Paddy Dunne. Stags and Hens starts next week in The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny. It runs from July 21st -25th.

Stags and Hens Poster

The 70's tastic main poster for our upcoming production of Willy Russell's Stags and Hens has gone online over at DeviousTheatre.com

Expertly designed by Mr. Paddy Dunne, it features the titular stag and hen parties of the play in their own little toilet cubicle settings. Which aptly enough is where they spend most of the play anyway! It's got a lovely, and slightly tacky, 1970's disco feel which is exactly where the play is coming from. The promotion campaign is currently revving up for July 21st when the play will take to the stage of the Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny until July 25th.

Paddy has written a blog talking us through the poster and it can be read in all it's glory over here.

The rehearsals are coming along great and there's also some pretty nifty rehearsal photos over on the site as taken by Messrs McGuire and Galster.

The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm is online!

The newest installment of Vultures has gone online as of last night.



This is the fifth episode of Vultures and I'm probably the most satisfied (as in least complainy) with this one. The general consensus coming from the cast and crew screening was 'the best one since Episode 2' which made me very happy indeed. Episode 2 has always been our best episode I think and it was nice to recapture the fast paced comic feel with this one. NOTE: If audiences prefer the ones with dead hookers and frantic fugitive escapades more than the ones about bin bags and blind dates, it's a good indicator that audiences like things to be exciting!

Personally, my favourite aspect of 'The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm' is getting to see the depth of cast. The supporting characters are really effective in it and every actor has done fine work to create such distinctive characters. From my own perspective, playing one of the detectives, I think we've succeeded in freshening up the dynamic between V.P.I. and their relationship with each other. It got a little stale in episodes 3 & 4 I felt, but we seem to be back on track heading into the final strait.

So, do enjoy the fruits of our tired, low budget sitcom making efforts. This week I'm back to chopping the footage down for Episode 6, which will go online in August. If, for some reason, you have Vultures related needs, the only place for them is over at www.VulturesPI.com. We'll have some real nice little bits and bobs in the coming weeks.

Meet Jane Tennyson

The character profile for Jane Tennyson has just gone online over on the Episode 4 page.

Played by Annette O'Shea, Jane is the slightly potty mouthed and somewhat aggressive Bangarda twin sister of Niall Tennyson, played by Sean Hackett.

Jane was another one of those characters that we had come up with very early on, but like Janine, we never got to put her into an episode until 'The Case Of The Poisoned Dates'. In that episode we only just about got her established, and even at that I've a feeling that she was established to be something she might not be. But we do get ample time to spend with her in the upcoming 'The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm' where you'll get a chance to see the character take a bigger part in proceedings.

In terms of the roots of this character, over on the Development page myself and Paddy have wrote another one of those needlessly over referential essays about characters that we do so like to write. This one is 'The Making Of A Modern Law Lady'. And you'll find out much more about the character and generally, why she exists.

As you can see, police dramas were a big part of our research. Especially TJ Hooker.

Trainspotting: The Cunt Cut

With all of the scenes for Devious Theatre's Trainspotting now gone online, there comes the turn of a little extra that we put together for the cast and crew of the production which ran in Kilkenny (nearly this time last year... time certainly flies) in June 2008.

It's the entire play edited down to its most prominent word: cunt.

Warning: Desensitization will follow.



For more Trainspotting videos, you can check out the Devious Theatre Youtube Page.