AMONG THE many rib-tickling attractions at the Vodafone Comedy Carnival Galway is comic theatre show Singlehood which brings raw and revealing stories of real life singletons to the stage to hilarious effect.
Conceived and directed by Una McKevitt, and scripted by herself, David Coffey, and the seven-strong cast, Singlehood is a stimulating look at the personal triumphs and losses we all experience in negotiating the minefields of love and romance.
McKevitt is a Dublin-based director and theatre-maker who has produced five shows to date with her own UMCK Productions. The focus of her work is to derive original dramatic texts from documentary practice and true-life personal histories. She aims to create theatre that is artful, innovative, and entertaining.
During a break in rehearsals, she talked about the show and her work in general. “For me it’s about presenting real life stories,” she says of her attraction to documentary theatre. “I’ve always felt that conversations you have in pubs with your friends can seem less contrived than traditional theatre. I am attracted to the rhythms of everyday speech. When I meet people, depending on what the theme of the show is, it’s about crafting what they initially say into something that can be presented onstage.”
The stories and experiences presented onstage in Singlehood are drawn from the cast members and interviews conducted with members of the public.
“We just talked to whoever was willing to talk to us,” McKevitt tells me. “We did try to have diversity and we have a good selection of voices from both men and women, the youngest is 16 and the eldest is 54. Some people were divorced, others were separated, some people had never been in a relationship, some were in a series of relationships or were single because they had bad experiences. We found that most people weren’t imagining themselves being single forever. People generally were looking forward to meeting somebody eventually.”
Did McKevitt and her cast encounter any stories which prompted raised eyebrows or dropped jaws?
“My sister Aine, who’s in the cast, talks about the various reasons her relationships broke up,” she replies. “It was generally men saying things she just couldn’t believe that anyone would say to anybody, so there are a few moments like that.
“We don’t shy away from discussing sex so there is some graphic detail about things like one-night stands and so on. The hair-raising bits are more about things people have said than what they have experienced, like inappropriate comments someone might have said about someone’s age being single or when they were breaking up or online dating.
“The things that might make your jaw drop are the casual way people talk to each other; one of the stories is how in one of the relationships described the last thing the guy said to the girl was that he was in a band and couldn’t imagine her being the last person he would have sex with so he broke up with her. There is also another story about a casual sexual encounter where the man had chickenpox.”
McKevitt says of the show’s markedly comic thrust: “I always felt Singlehood would be light-hearted and an entertaining experience. That’s not to say it doesn’t have moments of bleakness, there are some dark spots in there but mostly it is carried along by humour.
“We’re a funny bunch us Irish, we can be self-deprecating and with a natural sense of humour and I wanted to get that across, even the way people talk when they’re not even trying to be funny, their phrasing and all those things that are particular to how we speak.”
Singlehood premiered to rave reviews at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2012 and in 2013 it became the first show of its kind to play in Vicar Street where it attracted 1,400 people over two nights.
“Vicar Street was fantastic,” McKevitt recalls. “I’d always hoped it would be a show that people would relax during. There doesn’t have to be complete silence, it can withstand interruption, it’s like an ensemble stand-up show. The show suits a venue like that, probably even better than a theatre so that’s why we are so happy to be going to the comedy carnival, because the show is being played in the right context. The show straddles theatre and comedy and with a comedy venue we’re bringing the show to new audiences.”
McKevitt also stresses the importance of the show’s musical score.
“We have original music written by Aidan Strangeman who just won this year’s So You Think You’re Funny,” she explains. “His music is perfectly suited to the show and he was a very important collaborator in the project because without the music the show might have been too talky. It gives the cast these moments where they can do something different.”
Singlehood boasts a fantastic ensemble of seven performers, comedians PJ Gallagher and Eric Lalor, along with Aine McKevitt, Joanne McNally, Rory Murphy, Dee Roycroft, Steve O'Sullivan and Aidan Strangeman.
Singlehood will be performed in the Town Hall Theatre on Friday October 24 and Saturday 25 at 7pm. Also featured on the bill is stand-up Gearoid Farrelly. Details and tickets are through VodafoneComedyCarnival.com
