As part of its ‘Springtime of Drama’ season, the Town Hall Theatre is presenting Moment, one of the most exciting new Irish dramas of recent years.
Fresh from a hugely successful run at the Bush Theatre in London, Deirdre Kinahan’s play is an explosive new drama from Tall Tales Theatre Company. The show runs at the Town Hall from Tuesday April 26 to Saturday 30.
The gripping story opens on a seemingly ordinary evening when an Irish family sit down to tea. But it’s different tonight…Nial is home, back from prison having committed a dark crime many years earlier with some news to share and a conscience to clear. Fast, funny, and frighteningly real, Moment examines how one terrible moment can change lives forever.
Can this family forgive themselves? Can we ever forgive a killing? These are interesting questions at a time when so many Irish families face the shocking reality of murder.
Deirdre Kinahan is the artistic director of Tall Tales and one of Ireland’s most celebrated and prolific new playwrights. She is a winner of the Tony Doyle Bursary with BBC Northern Ireland 2009 and is currently under commission to The Abbey Theatre. She has written for radio, screen, and stage and her most recent theatre works - Hue & Cry, Melody, and Maisy Daly’s Rainbow - have toured nationally and internationally.
Ahead of the play’s Galway run, Kinahan talked about the inspiration behind it.
“I was commissioned to write a play by Solstice Arts Centre in Navan in 2008,” she begins. “I had the idea of doing something on the theme of conflicted love and how a parent might cope with the fact of their child having committed a serious crime.
“The Wayne O’Donoghue and Joe O’Reilly stories were in the news at the time and they had got me thinking about the issue – how do things like that affect a family? Then one day I was listening to Marian Finucane on the radio and she interviewed a Mrs O’Dwyer and it was one of those interviews that just reached out to you.
“She and her husband had been away on holiday and while they were away their son had murdered their daughter. She spoke so powerfully and eloquently of her grief and that really gave me the impetus to proceed with the play. So I just re-imagined that kind of scenario and looked at the effect it would have on a mother and the whole family.”
Moment is directed by David Horan and the cast includes An Spidéal actress Kate NicChonaonaigh who is making waves in Dublin over the last two years, along with Deirdre Donnelly, Maeve Fitzgerald, Will O’Connell, Ronan Leahy, Aela O’Flynn, Rebecca O’Mara, and Karl Quinn.
“I’ve worked with David before,” Kinahan reveals. “He directed Hue and Cry and we took it to New York and it did really well there. He’s one of the most talented directors we have. He’s not flashy, for him it’s all about the text. He’s a director with real heart.”
The play has been a huge critical and popular success and Kinahan reflects on why it has proved such a hit.
“It’s very much an audience play,” she says. “As well as the tension there’s a lot of laughter in it as the family dance around these events they’re talking about, or avoiding talking about. It races along like a train that you know is gonna hit a wall, and it does. It’s also all about forgiveness and compassion.”
Tickets are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
