OVER THE past few years, actor/author Mark O’Halloran has proven himself one of Ireland’s most gifted dramatists with his justly-acclaimed scripts for the films Adam & Paul and Garage.
Now, Truewest Theatre Company is giving Galway audiences their first opportunity to see O’Halloran’s fine 2001 tragi-comic stage play, The Head of Red O’Brien, which runs next week at the Galway Arts Centre’s Nuns Island theatre.
The Head of Red O’Brien takes place in a hospital room, where the eponymous Red O’Brien is recovering from a near-fatal assault by his wife. The assault, a frenzied knife attack in which O’Brien was stabbed in the head, deprived him of his cognitive processing skills. Slowly, however, they have returned.
Now, on the eve of his imminent checkout, he gets the opportunity to evaluate his life, as his desires, regrets, and hopes are affectionately analysed. O’Brien reflects on the disintegration of his relationship with his wife while entertainingly holding forth on subjects as diverse as Sean Connery, James Joyce, and the Cold War.
By turns moving and tragic, funny and warm, The Head of Red O’Brien is the journey of a wounded and sensitive man from conflict to resolution, and ultimately towards a higher realisation.
The role of Red O’Brien is played by John O’Dowd and, speaking ahead of the production, he explained what drew him to the play.
“A friend of mine showed me a compendium of plays that had been put on in Bewleys Café Theatre and there were two Mark O’Halloran plays in it, including Red O’Brien,” he says. “I’m a big fan of Mark’s films and I was blown away when I found the play. It’s only been staged in Ireland once, at Bewleys, and I feel really fortunate I found it because it’s a real little gem.
“He’s such a good writer; he seems to find people on the edges of society and he humanises them in a very real yet humorous way. He finds the warmth of these characters, you see that in Adam & Paul and it’s there as well in The Head of Red O’Brien. Another attraction for me is that it’s a one-man play and, after doing seven or eight plays, that’s something I felt I needed to do personally to extend my abilities.”
The production also features the use of specially devised live video and music to further immerse the audience into the mind of O’Brien.
“I wanted to play around with the ideas of visuals and sounds as being important elements of the production,” says O’Dowd. “It’s written in to a degree in the original play; one after-effect of the assault on O’Brien is that it sends him into trances; in the original play, still images were displayed on the wall to suggest this.
“I felt it would be interesting to use film instead for those sequences. The music we’re using is newly composed by Mark Long and the film inserts are by Ronan Casey. They’re working closely together on those aspects of the show. The music and imagery work off each other.”
The Head of Red O’Brien, which is directed by Rae Visser, runs at Nuns Island from Tuesday, March 9 to Saturday March 14 at 8pm nightly. It is also due a short run at Kelly’s Bar, Bridge Street, at the end of the month as part of that venue’s new lunchtime theatre season.
The show also seems certain to tour as strong interest is being shown by festivals and theatre venues. All in all, it promises to be a captivating theatrical experience.
For more information and tickets contact the Galway Arts Centre, on 091 - 565886.
