Irish Mail on Sunday review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Michael Moffat of the Irish Mail on Sunday also reviewed Philadelphia, Here I Come! Giving the review 4 stars and describing the production as "excellent", this is one in a long series of extremely positive reviews of the Production.

Sparkling take on Friel’s split-personality story
Philadelphia Here I Come!
On tour (see below) ****

IF BRIAN FRIEL'S earliest big success had been written as a film script, it would surely have had a sequel to follow the adventures in Philadelphia of the gormless young failure from Ballybeg. He is a failed student a failure in love, he's no great shakes as a businessman, yet he deludes himself with daydreams about his future in the US as a red-hot womaniser and tycoon. His father, SB O'Donnell, has at least built up a decent business and is a county councillor, yet SB is the villain of the play.

I have often thought it would be interesting to look into the mind of SB contemplating the incompetence of his big eejit of a son, in the same way that we get a look into Gar's mind.
In this excellent production, Sean Stewart as Gar Public and Marty Rea as Gar Private, get across the full measure of pathos and manic humour in the character, especially in the painful scene with Kathy and that deeply moving scene in which Gar and his father begin to communicate tentatively, but which ends as Gar's childhood boating memory is shattered.

The strong cast includes Conan Sweeney as the archetypal hard-man Ned, and Walter McMonagle as a not unsympathetic SB. Joan Sheehy is suitably creepy as Lizzy Sweeney but Enda Oates doesn't capture the seedy arrogance, and self-delusion of Master Boyle, who is so casually dismissive of Gar's limited abilities. The prayerful mutterings in the rosary scene distracted from Gar's fantasising but director Alan Stanford generally orches­trates everything at a fine pace and has bravely allowed dra­matic silences, which can be dangerous when playing to school audiences, although the only intrusive noise I heard was from a teacher's mobile.

The fine set by Eileen Diss is typical of the attention to detail that goes into these Second Age productions. •
Touring:
Everyman, Cork,Nov. 20-23:
Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire Nov 29 - Dec 1

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Caitríona Ní Mhurchú to play Lady Macbeth

Second Age is delighted that Caitríona Ní Mhurchú will reprieve her role as Lady Macbeth. Caitríona has worked with Second Age a number of times now, most recently in the 2006 production of Macbeth. A graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, Caitríona has worked extensively in theatre and television. Her appearances at the Abbey and Peacock include Beauty in a Broken Place, Ariel, and Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire and she has also worked with Alan Stanford at the Gate Theatre on a number of occassions, most recently in The Constant Wife.
Her television experience is extensive that includes roles in Proof and Fair City for RTE, and Ballykissangel for the BBC.
Caitríona is a fluent Irish speaker and has worked extensively through Irish when she has written, directed and voiced cartoons for TG4, including Spongebob Squarepants, The Muppet Show and Scooby Doo. Caitríona's first novel for young people Ó Lúibíní Lú has just been published by Cló Iar-Chonnachta.

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David Shannon to play title role in Macbeth 2008

Second Age is thrilled to announce that David Shannon, who delighted both audience and critics with his breathtaking performance as Sweeney Todd at the Gate Theatre, is set to play the title role in Macbeth.

His Sweeney Todd was rapturously received by both Dublin Audiences and the critics who described the "phenomenal performances by David Shannon......Shannon's coiled intensity, looming physical presence and vocal richness" (The Guardian) "David Shannon makes a marvellously brooding Sweeney" (Sunday Independent) ,"David Shannon, ... makes a compellingly intense and beautifully voiced Todd"(The Irish Times). The verdict was unanimous, that Shannon has an outstanding talented with an immense presence. Whilst it may have been his performance in Sweeney Todd that brought David to the attention of Dublin audiences, David has long been playing to considerable critical acclaim on the international stage. He has played Chris in Miss Saigon UK tour (Mayflower, Southampton, Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Hippodrome); Alternate Chris in Miss Saigon UK tour (Edinburgh Playhouse, Point Theatre Dublin); and has played in numerous other Musical Theatre greats including Pimp/Claquesous and understudy Enjolras in Les Miserables (Point Theatre, Dublin and Edinburgh Playhouse)and the star role in one of West Ends most celebrated musicals The Phantom of the Opera

.
David will start rehearsing Macbeth in late December, the show will open at An Grianán Letterkenny before touring to the TownHall Galway, Everyman Palace Theatre Cork and finally to the Helix Theatre Dublin.

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Sunday Business Post Review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

As mentioned in my previous post three reviews of the production Philadelphia, Here I Come! have been published today. Only two can be found on line, but I shall scan the Irish Mail on Sundays review and make it available here tomorrrow. Sara Keating's positively titled "New Raw Edges to Friel's play" can be found here...

Theatre: New raw edge to Friel’s play

11 November 2007 By Sara Keating

Philadelphia Here I Come! By Brian Friel, Nationwide tour

When it was first performed in 1964, Philadelphia Here I Come! was a radical piece of theatre. Not merely did it cut to the quick of an Irish society ravaged by mass emigration, but it put the psychological conflict engendered by an environment of economic and emotional poverty on the stage in the shape of two separate characters, Private Gar and Public Gar.Each character represents the divided mind of a man on the eve of his departure from his homeland. This sort of cultural schizophrenia became the dominant theme in the work of Irish writers for the next 20 years.
Ireland has changed profoundly since then. The Gar O’Donnells of the world have returned home to work with Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians and Chinese. Small towns have mushroomed.Communities have individualised. The church has lost its influence over the structure of people’s lives.So what could a play like Philadelphia Here I Come! possibly mean to an audience 43 years after it was written? Second Age Theatre’s solid production of Brian Friel’s play answers this question by performing Philadelphia as a period piece. Eileen Diss provides a naturalistic re-creation of the play’s small country kitchen set. Leonore McDonagh’s brown costumes err on the side of conservative 1960s fashion, while Sinead McKenna’s ochre lighting design evokes the sepia-toned sense of photographs fading and time gone by. In light of the play’s presence on the Leaving Certificate 2008 curriculum and the company’s status with school audiences, director Alan Stanford might be accused of playing it safe. But, with the play so embedded in a particular moment in Irish history, the backward glance effect was inevitable.In fact, it is to Stanford’s credit that he manages to find a raw edge to the play, largely through his performers. Marty Rea’s Private Gar, in particular, is superb as the repressed alter ego. With his manic energy, perfect mimicry and tense rangy physicality, Rea is like a tightly-wound metal coil about to be sprung. Sean Stewart, meanwhile, plays the 25-year-old Public Gar with spot-on sulky adolescence.Between them, they find a way to ensure that the play engages on an emotional as well as an historical level. But as Gar himself knows well, history is inescapable: ‘‘The longest way round is the fastest way home.”

Rating ***

Philadelphia Here I Come! continues at the Helix Theatre, Dublin (until November 16); Everyman Palace, Cork (November 20 & 22-23) and Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin (November 29–December 1)

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Sunday Times Reviews Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Today three more reviews have been published via the Sunday Papers; namely the Sunday Business Post, The Irish Mail on Sunday, and the Sunday Times. All 3 are uniformly positive, but it is Declan Burkes review in the Sunday Times, that strikes me as particularly pertinent. Colin Murphy of the Sunday Tribune struggled to find the contemporary relevance of the play, and here Declan Burke, highlights the relationships within the play are as resonant today as they were in 1960's Ireland.

Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Emigration is no longer the unavoidable exile for many that it was when Brian Friel's play was first produced in 1964, but a young man's inability to connect emotionally with his family is as relevant as ever. Gar Public (Sean Stewart) - goaded by his conscience, Gar Private (Marty Rea) struggles to establish meaningful relationships, especially with his father, SB O'Donnell (Walter McMonagle), on the eve of his departure to America. In a production aimed primarily at Leaving Certificate students, the director, Alan Stanford, at first emphasises the more accessible elements of the knockabout humour between Public and Private Gar. Rea and Stewart are excellent, with Rea superb at segueing from clowning to the gravitas required for the poignant finale. Aine Ni Mhuiri underplays her role as Madge, the maternal figure the motherless Gar craves, and in this relationship Gar's tragedy has its most telling contemporary resonance for young Irish Men.

Declan Burke

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Sunday Tribune Review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Colin Murphy of the Sunday Tribune wrote a less than favourable review of the production, and of the play itself. Perhaps it is unwise of Second Age to draw attention to this review, but as we have published all other reviews, it seems only right that we publish this one too. In fact it could serve as an interesting starting point for debate. So here it is verbatim as published in the Sunday Tribune on 04/11/2007.

Philadelphia is well past its sell-by date
Colin Murphy


THE year is 1964. Gar is going to America, and using a suitcase last used by his parents on their honeymoon. He opens it to find a newspaper from their wedding day, dated 1937. "A medieval manuscript!" he exclaims.
Brian Friel's play, Philadelphia, Here I Come! , is now older than that "medieval mauscript" was to young Gar. Like that newspaper, its value is chiefly a historical one. It is badly dated and largely tedious. Nobody under, say, 35, who wasn't already inured to it from the Leaving Cert, could listen to Gar relishing his private nickname for his father, "Screwballs", and not wince.
Similarly with the constant refrain of "It is now 16 or 17 years since the Queen of France. . .". The play is mired by flashbacks and exposition; characters consistently tell us more than we need to know; everything is made tediously explicit. Two scenes in particular jar: the hoary old cliche of reading a letter aloud; and the visit of Gar's relatives from the US, who appear as little more than a cipher for the vulgarity of wealth.
The split of Gar Public from Gar Private, brashly experimental in its day, now seems like little more than a device to allow Friel spell everything out. Though Sean Stewart and Marty Rea present a finely tuned double-act, the incessant banter between Public and Private is now more reminiscent of something on the Ryan Tubridy show than of a split between ego and id.
Alan Stanford's production for Second Age, aimed at school audiences, is uninspired but faithful. He marshals his cast well around Eileen Diss's literal set. Though the company is uneven, with some responding to the dated dialogue by hamming their performances, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Enda Oates and Andrew Adamson are particularly good.
There are strengths to the play, but its chief strength for students is now its weakness as drama: its conflicts are so glaringly obvious as to come with exam questions inbuilt: public and private; children and parents; poverty and wealth, etc. Today's Ireland is a restless place that couldn't give a curse about the past; this play is so firmly rooted at one point in that past that it has become an anachronism. Discuss.

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Sunday Independent - Review Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Emer O'Kelly of the Sunday Independent is one of the latest reviews to be published. To date all of the reviews have been uniformly good, and there is not much quarrel over the quality of this production of Philadelphia, Here I Come! ALAN STANFORD'S latest production for Second Age is Philadelphia, Here I Come! and a solid, competent, straightforward one it is. This is in no way pejorative, since the company's work is aimed mainly at schools audiences, and for teenagers seeing their first Friel come alive on stage, this is the way to do it.
Three of the cast re-create the roles they played in Adri­an Dunbar's production for ART NI several years ago, notably Marty Rea as Gar Private.
The others are Walter McMonagle as SB O'Donnell, and Conan Sweeney as Ned, the vainglorious "lad" from the town. All three have a fine edge, and Rea comes close to being superb as he postures, scampers, and mocks his own broken heart through Gar's last night in Ballybeg before he heads for Philadelphia and the doubtful joys of being the pampered and smothered son Aunt Lizzie never had.
It's 1964, and it will be a long time before he sees any­one again, whether it be the loving housekeeper Madge, or his faithless sweetheart Kate Doogan in her fine feathers as the local doctor's wife.
One of the joys of such a straightforward production is the recognition it gives to the exquisite writing, with every character drawn in fine lines that scream the agony of emo­tional nerve-ends stripped and put on display. And of course, the nerve ends between Gar and his father are a silent scream: "It's the silence that's the enemy," as Private franti­cally tells Public, urging him to the confidence of admitting need: for love, for memory, for hope. And no matter how often you have seen the play, the memories the father and son try to evoke, each living in a separate dappled past, break your heart anew.
Sean Stewart is an extremely good Public, and Aine Ni Mhuiri a good if somewhat pianissimo Madge. The cameos are almost uniformly good also, from Dearbhla McGuinness as Kate, David Heap as her father, Enda Oates as Master Boyle, John Olohan as the Canon, and Donncha Crowley and Dan Reardon as Uncle Con Sweeney and Ben Burton. Joan Sheehy, however, seems to be aiming for suppressed refinement as Aunt Lizzie when unrestrained vulgarity should be the order of the day. Roger Thomson and Andrew Adamson complete the cast, with set design by Eileen Diss and costumes by Leonore McDonagh: both are absolutely in tune.
Philadelphia, Here I Come! is at the Helix in Dublin and tours to the Everyman in Cork and the Pavilion, Dun Laoghaire.

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Two Four Star Reviews Published Today

Both the Irish Daily Mail and Metro Ireland gave the production Philadelphia Here I Come four Star reviews today. John McKeowns verdict was that it was "Elegantly Staged and Paced, with Quality Acting" and Darragh Reddin of Metro Ireland described it as a "Blistering Production"

Click on the press cutting image to view the press cutting in full size

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Irish Times Review by Peter Crawley

Peter Crawley reviewed the Show for the Irish Times on Tuesday night and it's clear he enjoyed the show read the full review here....

Philadelphia, Here I Come! The Helix, Dublin
It would be a bold experiment, and not one that an audience might voluntarily pay to witness, to have Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come! performed without one essential character - Gar Private. This might strike you as complete folly, like staging Hamlet without the prince. Or, given that the onstage embodiment of an internal voice was such a bold experiment to begin with, a reactionary response coming several decades too late.
But, in his frenetic routine of commentaries, interjections, vibrant fantasies, comic accents and acerbic piss-takes, Gar Private is a rebel against silence. In fact, he fills that silence of his suffocating home in Ballybeg to such a degree that in Second Age's crisp, clear production of Friel's first play, it's easy to overlook the ache of silence that might split a young man in two, to feel those excruciating stretches.
Not that you would want Marty Rea, an actor of bracing versatility and striking focus, to take the night off. Dressed as neatly as a job applicant, his Gar Private is otherworldly, certainly, but no rampaging id. In fact, as Sean Stewart's Gar Public literally makes a song and dance about fleeing for America in the morning, it's his alter ego who comes across as the restraining influence. "You know what you're doing," warns Private, essentially summarising the play. "Collecting memories and images and impressions that are going to make you bloody miserable." Director Alan Stanford works this double act smoothly, although Private, who can sometimes seem to be more in charge of the play than his author, will always run off with the show. His sardonic, caustic wit - the humour of an imagination frustrated by routine - is one that may resonate with the company's intended school audiences.
There is, from the design to the performance, a great clarity in this production - even in the well-enunciated lines of Áine Ní Mhuirí's quietly tragic housekeeper Madge that might have worked better muttered - but not much that surprises. That may be the consequence of the play's strange journey from a radical to canonical work; less the fault of a faithful production than of the sanction of the syllabus.
There is no use pining for the formal shock of 1964, however, and watching the play today you see a revealing picture of Ireland then, from the penitential posture of the rosary to the empty promise of America with its air-conditioned cars and snowy Christmases.
There may be little embellishment in this production, but there is at least no barrier between us and the play. It still has the capacity to move, nowhere more so than in the quietly significant exchange between Walter McGonagle's tamped-down patriarch SB O'Donnell and John Olohan's absent Canon O'Byrne. Silence is the enemy, urges Private, and that's true enough; but Friel also knew that sometimes it can speak volumes.
Until Nov 16 at The Helix, then The Everyman Palace Nov 20-23, and the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire 29 Nov 29 - Dec 1
- Peter Crawley

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NATIONAL PUBLIC FUNDING FOR THE ARTS IN 2008

Theatre Forum, the voice of the performing Arts have recently updated Second Age on expectations for Arts Funding for the coming year, and unfortunately it does not bode well for either our audiences or the Arts Community in general. They are urging that we lobby more actively to have our collective voice heard and ask that increased funding be allocated by Government to the Arts Council so that companies such as Second Age can continue to develop and improve the programme that we are providing. Several of our audience have already responded to our surveys and the response is unanimous: that Second Age is of enormous value to a national audience, and without our programme that several thousand students nationally would be "disadvantaged". The following is the update and call for support from Theatre Forum. We urge that you write to the people mentioned below and post your responses here, where we will be happy to forward them on your behalf......


You may have seen the pre-budget announcement last Friday. Theatre Forum's understanding is that the Department of Arts Sport and Tourism has been awarded €654 million for 2008, an increase of €6 million on this year. However €253 million of this - i.e. 38.7% - is capital money.
According to the Examiner newspaper:
Most of the increase is going to the tourism sector;
36% less will be spent on cultural infrastructure, 20% less on cultural programming;
The national cultural institutions such as the National Museum, National Gallery, and National Concert Hall are down 11%. There is one exception, the National Gallery is getting a 14% increase, bringing their budget to €13.3million.
So the signals are not good in terms of funding for the Arts Council and hence for arts organisations next year.
We are obviously going to have be more active as an arts community and fight for as much as possible for the Arts Council. At the risk of stating the obvious this involves you making representations to your local TDs, and to Minister Seamus Brennan ASAP. Ideally this could take the form of a letter to start with followed, where possible, by a meeting in their constituency office.
WHO'S ON THE ARTS, SPORT AND TOURISM COMMITTEE IN THE DAIL
The new Committees were announced last night by the Taoiseach. The Chair of the Oireachtas Arts Committee is Mr M.J.Nolan, a Fianna Fail TD from Carlow Kilkenny, the Vice Chair is Mr Michael Kennedy, a newly elected Fianna Fail TD for Dublin North.All TDs can be contacted c/o, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2, or via their local constituency offices which is better for local events. The other members are:
Áine Brady (FF Kildare North) newly elected
Cyprian Brady (FF Dublin Central) newly elected
Sean Connick (FF Wexford) newly elected
John Curran (FF Dublin Mid West)
Dinny McGinley (FG Donegal South West)
Olivia Mitchell (FG Spokesperson on the Arts) Dublin South
John O'Mahony (FG Mayo) newly elected
Mary Upton (Labour Party Spokesperson on the Arts) Dublin South Central
Jack Wall (Labour Kildare South)
Mary White (Green Carlow Kilkenny) Deputy Leader of the Green Party
0rganisations based in these constituencies should ensure the TDs are notifed of arts events in the area and invited along.

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Set Designed by Eileen Diss for Philadelphia, Here I Come!

Eileen Diss the Multi Bafta Award Winning Designer whose work includes classic films such as 84 Charing Cross Road, Jeeves and Wooster and the Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, to name but a few, is the designer of Philadelphia, Here I Come! On opening night she gave as a good luck card to all the cast and crew a card with the most exquisite drawing detailing the Set of Philadelphia, Here I Come!

The following interview that I found on the Bafta.org website gives an idea of what an illustrious and diverse career Eileen has had.


Award-winning production designer Eileen Diss reflects on her 50-year career with Quentin Falk.

Eileen Diss wears more than half a century of production design very lightly indeed. Yes, she admits that the idea of driving herself to a remote film or TV location at six in the morning is, these days, perhaps less than appealing. But that hasn't stopped her from recently commuting between Dublin's Gate Theatre and London's Barbican where she has been tirelessly involved with simultaneously staging no fewer than ten of Samuel Beckett's plays.

It has, by any standards, been a brilliant career from those very earliest days at the BBC in the Fifties where her skills were required on everything from 'The Sunday Play' and Muffin The Mule to Maigret and The Railway Children. Film and theatre followed along with BAFTA awards for TV's Jeeves & Wooster and Longitude as well as further nominations for A Dance To The Music Of Time and Porterhouse Blue.

That kind of small-screen recognition, along with an RTS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, together with this year's Special Award at the British Academy Television Craft Awards might explain why, when pressed about her preference, she notes that TV has probably afforded her most enjoyment. No, not because of the trophies but, she explains ever businesslike, "simply because of the multi-camera. Logistically, it's very interesting to plot a studio." This was especially true in the days of live television drama. "That was fun," she sighs, a little nostalgically.

The daughter of a dental technician and a sometime dress designer, Diss grew up in East London with an addiction for film from her teens and a burning desire to get into the industry. Her letters to the likes of legendary art director Carmen Dillon received polite replies but no concrete result.

But after eventually graduating in theatre design at the Central School, one of her father's wartime contacts paid off with an invitation for to meet the head of design at the BBC. Six months later, she received a letter asking if she'd like to join one of their production courses. She'd love to, Diss replied, but how much would it cost her? "No, we will be paying you £9 a week."

It was such fun, she recalls, "but then everything was fun when you're 21. After the six-week course we went into Lime Grove to assist people. I'd never done any technical drawing as such but you learn that very quickly. There were ten designers in all and I had no long term thoughts at all; I was happy just getting on with it."

After her second child - Diss, who was widowed a decade ago, has three children (her oldest, Dany, is an award-winning costume designer) and six grandchildren - she went freelance in 1959, "although I still worked totally for the BBC. The idea was that I wouldn't be working full-time as I had two small children, but it didn't seem to work out like that; it was as intense as ever."

Early highlights for her include Maigret and one of Ken Loach's earliest TV plays, Up The Junction - "Ken looked rather like a sixth former then - come to think of it, he still does" - before, thanks to introduction from Harold Pinter, her feature film debut in 1973 for Joseph Losey. A Doll's House, with a contractually all-powerful Jane Fonda, took her "to a little town in Norway just below the Arctic Circle. It was all a bit of a shock for me because I had to go by myself and set it all up. At the BBC I'd been used to big backup; now I was all alone in the snow. It was very hard and although educational, I can't say I really enjoyed it struggling to keep 10 minutes ahead of things.

"Did I have a bigger budget to work with? Oh God, no. I've never done anything with a big budget. They've always been minute. I'm not even sure I'd be comfortable with a big budget because I'm now so used to small art departments."

Her award-nominated production design has generally been associated with period drama - Longitude skilfully recreated the mid 18th Century while Jeeves & Wooster veritably dripped turn of the Thirties - though her own historical preference is for the 19th and early 20th Century. "I like in particular the social history of those periods and have a read a lot of it."

It is, though, typical of Diss, at just 75 still ever the team player, that TV design-wise, she prefers instead not to sing her own successes but rather pay tribute "to a whole area out there which is far more inventive.

"I'm talking about really big studio complexes for something like Strictly Come Dancing. Those are staggering sets, yet they never seem to be considered for awards," she harrumphed, elegantly.

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Saturday Independent review - 20.10.2007

On Saturday Anitra Guidra wrote a great review of Thursday nights show ...


A second coming for signature Friel play
Anita Guidera
Saturday October 20 2007


THE challenge for cast and crew with a composition as played as this Friel masterpiece is to find its freshness anew.


In fact, two of the cast from this Second Age production played the same roles in Adrian Dunbar's version in the Gaiety. Walter McMonagle reprieves his role as taciturn father, S B O'Donnell, and a charming Marty Rea as Gar Private.

But with lightness of touch, director Alan Stanford succeeds in eliciting from a talented cast a keen sense of the repressive early 1960s in rural Ireland.

This is aided by a meticulously detailed set by award-winning designer Eileen Diss.

Here, in this Donegal backwater of Ballybeg, Gar Public, performed with sensitivity and youthful exuberance by Donegal-born rising star Sean Stewart, is on the cusp of cutting loose for Philadelphia.

Dimension

His inner turmoil, actualised by Rea's Gar Private, gives the play its dimension as he struggles with lost love and desperately seeks an eleventh-hour demonstration of love from an uncommunicative father.

Among the theatrical high points is the poignant visit and awkward embrace of Gar from old schoolteacher, Master Boyle (Enda Oates), who is drowning his love for Gar's dead mother in alcohol, and Aine Ni Mhuiri's touching performance as world weary Madge, about to lose the closest thing she has ever had to a son.

But tying it all together is humour, not just from the excellent mimicry of Gar Private and the thinly-veiled pathos of Aunt Lizzy (Joan Sheehy), but from the lads who call to say goodbye only to distract themselves from the moment with grandiose claims of their own past conquests.

Perhaps stealing the show is the hilarious John Olohan as smug Canon Mick O'Byrne, one of the few characters who's truly delighted with himself and his lot.

- Anita Guidera

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Packed Houses in Donegal

Over the last 5 days, the Second Age production of Philadelphia, has played to almost 2,000 people, and the overwhelming response is that this production is a hit..... The show opened to a predominantly school audience on Wednesday 17th October, and only 29 of the 393 seats at an Grianán were empty. The following day another Matinee with not one seat empty in the house, and that night, the first non-schools performance took place. With nearly every seat in the house taken at an Grianáns beautiful new auditorium, the atmosphere was fantastic. Every nuance and subtle play of humour was seized upon by the delightfully attentive audience and when the cast took their bow, and the Donegal audience gave them their first standing ovation.

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Philadelphia Here I Come - Dress Rehearsal Shots

On Tuesday last at the Dress Rehearsal, we got some production shots. See for yourself just how beautiful the show looks

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PHILADELPHIA Publicity Stills - Photos: Anthony Woods

Have a look at some of the great stills we got for Philadelphia, Here I Come! and let us know what you think of them....

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Philadelphia, Here I Come! VIDEO SHOOT

On Saturday last, we shot some great footage, and stills as promos for the production Philadelphia, Here I Come! I have uploaded the video that is due to go out on TV3 from the 6th October. Needless to say this is a much compressed version for web, but you get the idea. A big thanks to all involved, Marty Rea, Sean Stewart, Alan Stanford, Anthony Woods, Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde, Leonore McDonagh, Val Sherlock, Conleth Teevan, and Michael Church from Cabinteely House. Have a look at it here and let us know what you think..Will be posting the stills from the day and some pics from rehearsals soon, so do check back!

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2008 Funding & Touring

Philadelphia Here I Come and its associated tour has only been made possible through assistance from the Arts Councils touring Experiment. The Touring Experiment is an action research project which will support, observe, and work in partnership with a number of artists, producers, companies, venues and venue networks over the course of two years. The Touring Experiment will then present recommendations which will be presented to the Arts Council in early 2008.However it is not expected that the Arts Council will be in a position to implement a support mechanism for further touring within 2008. This in our view will have very serious repercussions on the companies programming for 2008 and the momentum and progress made by the company in 2007 will be undermined through what will be effectively a cut in funding to Second Age in 2008.

Although the tour funding for 2007 are directly linked to the production of Philadelphia they aid resources for the company by freeing up other funds.

Put simply this further investment of €75,000 has
generated

• €260,000 box office.
  
• An additional 15,000 young audience members nationally.
  
• Employment for 25 artists over a 3 month contract period.
  
• Provided the company with a year round programme.

If this kind of funding cannot be continued into 2008,

• 15,000 young people will be denied access to quality curriculum drama.
  
• 300 Artists job weeks will disappear
  
• €260,000 Box Office revenue will be lost to the arts community.
  
• Second Age will lose its permanent full time staff
  
• Second Age will lose momentum and the efficient working practices that that generates.

We are asking that should our audience wish to help Second Age continue with its programme in 2008 that they assist us in lobbying for

• a bridging touring grant to be implemented in early 2008 and
  
• increased overall funding from government to the arts council.

We suggest that this lobby should be directed to:
Seamus Brennan Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, and
Mary Cloake, Director Arts Council of Ireland.

I shall add a more detailed list at a later stage of where we should be directing our lobby to. If you would like to comment on this please use the comment button below and we will publish your views and forward them on your behalf.

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Philadelphia - Many Shows BOOKED OUT

Second Age opened it's Box Office to group bookings in Early May of this year. Due to overwhelming demand for the production Second Age has added two extra weeks to the run. Extra dates were added between 30th October and the 3rd November at the Helix, and an extra week was added from 27th November to the 1st December at the Pavilion Theatre Dún Laoghaire. Despite this extra availability, demand has still outweighed the capacity. Second Age is currently running a waiting list, and every effort is being made to accommodate our audience and their request for seats. If you would like your name to be added to our waiting list please call our box office on 01 679 8542.

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Cast & Crew list announced for Philadelphia!

Second Age is delighted to announce its full cast and crew list for its forthcoming production Philadelphia Here I Come

• Gar Private:Marty Rae (currently playing at the Abbey in the Big House)
• Gar Public: Sean Stewart
• SB O'Donnell: Walter McMonagle(who also played this role in Adrian Dunbars production of Philadelphia Here I Come)
• Madge:Áine Ní Mhuirí (also known to many as Lily from Fair City and more recently as Kathleen Hendley in Ballykissangel)
• Master Boyle: Enda Oates (a regular with Second Age; played Macduff in our last production of Macbeth)
• Lizzy Sweeney: Joan Sheehy (known to many as Nancy from Ros na Rún)
• Ben Burton: Dan Reardon (currently in Bedrocks production of Roberto Zucco)
• Senator Doogan: David Heap
• Canon Mick O'Byrne: John Olohan (also a regular with Second Age)
• Kate Doogan: Dearbhla McGuinness (a recent graduate of Trinity College)
• Con Sweeney: Donncha Crowley
• Ned: Conan Sweeny (who also played the role in Adrian Dunbars production of this play a couple of years ago)
• Tom: Roger Thomson
• Joe: Andrew Adamson

The production will be directed by Alan Stanford, designed by Eileen Diss (a multi-Bafta Award winning designer), Costumes by Leonore McDonagh and Lighting design by Sinéad McKenna.

Other production staff include: Mick Byrne, Maeve Nic Samhradáin, Yvonne Carry, Aaron Dempsey, Marella Boschi, Linda Keating, Alex McCullagh, Beth King and more...

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