Galway Advertiser 2002/2002_10_17/GA_17102002_E1_041.pdf 

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"Anyway, at long last we're goin' through Customs with me in the urn in the shoulder-bag, clankin'away against the bottle a'whiskey the langur on the boat had given Liam for services rendered. 'What's that?' sez the Customs man, rapping the urn with his knuckles. "Mind that 'tis my brother! sez Liam." THE ABOVE lines from Cork novelist Gaye Shortland's Mind That 'tis My Brother give some flavour of this exuberant hit comedy which comes to the Town Hall next week in an adaptation by the highlyregarded Meridian Theatre Co. The play takes its audience on a wildly entertaining romp through the afterlife of Tony, "the only survivor of Aids unknown to modern medicine". Author Gaye Shortland paints a painfully funny and surprisingly exotic portrait of Cork's gay underworld. Alienated, elated, or just plain out of their skulls the merry band of reprobates that Tony's friend Liam gathers to mark his passing wanders every byway of the city in a comic odyssey accompanied by Tony's ghost. But what was it drove Shortland, a 'straight' woman with three children to explore her native city's gay milieu? "I always had gay friends," she reveals over the phone. "One in particular who the character of Declan in the play is based on. The novel's based on a true story. I was trying to write it as a short story first but I was having a lot of trouble with it, it just seemed flat. My sister then suggested I tell it through the voice of the guy in the urn and once I tried that it took off, there open and friendly with a great was no stopping the narrator and I sense of fun. I suppose I was ended up with two novels out of always a bit of an outsider there to him (Mind That and its sequel a degree, that's only to be Turtles All the Way Down). expected. But I felt like even more However, the play doesn't just of an outsider when I came home cater for a gay audience and one [in 1990] because I'd been away of the heartening things of the tour so long, I felt detached from Cork is seeing what a broad appeal it culture. 1 think that's where the first two novels came from, that has." Her affinity for the gay world detached perspective. I was also also seems to fit in with her on the dole and had no money general free-spiritedness. This, with three kids to feed so there after all, is a woman who lived in was that impetus as well." West Africa for 16 years and The success of her early novels married a Touareg nomad (her led to work as a rock journalist for children are half-African). Her Hot Press, book reviewer and, experiences in Africa inform since 1998, editor with Poolbeg highly-praised novels like publishing company. The Polygamy, Harmattan, and Roughexperience of working with Rides in Dry Places, works that Meridian has also proved saw her hailed as "one of our invigorating. finest writers of sexual rapture and "I had a few offers to adapt the regret". How would she compare book when it first came out but I her native culture with that of the just never got round to it and then Touaregs? Johnny Hanrahan [Meridian's 'To be honest, I found the Irish artistic director] came along and Catholic mores more difficult to persuaded me to do it. It's been live with. That's why I left this fantastic working with them, I've country in the first place, because learned so much. I was very lucky I felt I couldn't breathe here. to get together with Johnny as we Touaregs are Muslim but are more see eye-to-eye on most things and relaxed than other Islamic groups. it's worked out wonderfully." Women are stronger than in other Taking their cue from the Muslim societies; succession for narrator Tony, Meridian's instance is through the mother. production leaves behind the They're wonderful people, very constraints of time and space in

Glad to be Gaye - Mind My Brother at the Town Hall

this show to rocket themselves and the audience into a zone located somewhere between Heaven and Sunday's Well, where a surreal blend of space rock and gay cult anthems swirls through a psychedelic city of dreams. Puppets, automata, models, and lighting magic transform the whole theatre into a box of hilarious, heart-breaking metaphysical tricks. Frank Bourke revels in the role of the clueless.

all-seeing Tony as he tells his sparkling tale of woe in this witty commentary on the marginalized and on the city which marginalizes them. The cast also includes Richard Loring and Raymond Scannell. The success Mind That has enjoyed during its runs in Cork and Dublin looks like paving the way for further Shortland plays; "I'm seduced entirely by theatre now," she enthuses, "and I'm

writing an original play for Meridian which hopefully will be staged next year. There'll be more books too I hope but it's a battle to find the time." No doubt she'll find a way to win that battle. In the meantime Mind That 'tis My Brother is at th Town Hall for two nights only next Tuesday October 22 an Wednesday 23 at 8pm. CMcB

ONE OF the smallest stars of the Baboro festival had challenge." Reppe first began performing Cinderella last May, and has already made an impact on children before her week-long run in the Town Hall Studio began. Cinderella found already picked up an award from London-based magazine herself with an instant fan base when she appeared last Total Theatre for her unusual adaptation. The show will week on The Den alongside Ireland's puppet TV stars travel to Blanchardstown and Portlaoise after finishing at Baboro, and plans are afoot to bring the production around Dustin and Socky. However, being made of far more reserved stuff than the the US and Canada next year. UNA SINNOTT demented duo who entertain the masses on The Den, Cinderella refrained from joining in the antics and concentrated instead on trying to tidy up the dishevelled pair. "She wasn't particularly impressed by their sense of humour," puppet master Shona Reppe said after her appearance on the programme last Friday. " She thought they were a bit noisy. They reminded her of her sisters. Dustin and Socky were just blabbering as usual, but Damian was very charming." Reppe's one woman show is an imaginative adaptation of the well known fairy tale, which draws on the darker elements of the Grimm brothers' original version rather than the saccharine Disney depiction of the rags-to-riches yam. Reppe, who brings Cinderella to Ireland as part of her first international tour as a solo performer, explained that she uses action and imagery rather than relying on narrative to tell her story. "It's a very visual show there's not a lot of speaking in it, so they have to watch the story," she said. "It's all in the surprises and the things you don't expect. It's very simple but it's also a show that uses very different kinds of puppetry. Telling the whole story of Cinderella as one person is quite a

Cinderella and the sock monster Men of Harlech to sing in charity Galway concert
THERE IS very little to match the grace and power of a Welsh choir and Galway will have the chance to experience the wonderful voices of Cor Meibion Ardudwy at the Augustinian Church on Friday October 25 at 8pm. The Cor Meibion Ardudwy is drawn from the Harlech district of Wales which lends its name to the famous march. The song 'Men of Harlech' is something of an unofficial anthem in Wales. Every Welsh person knows the tune and despite the variety of lyrics over the years, the martial air has become identified with the country's determination to retain its identity. The choir will perform traditional Welsh. English, and Irish songs. One of the highlights of the concert promises to be the choir's rendition of one of the alltime favourites of male voice choir songs; 'Morte Christe'. Most members of the choir are fluent in Welsh, and are proud of their Celtic heritage. "I couldn't let any celebration of our music - and certainly not a Galway celebration - go by without pointing to the way that our music contributes to our understanding of the past,"

said Huw Dafyddd Jones, o Cor Meibion Ardudwy. The concert at the Augustinian Church commences at 8pm. Tickets a 6 are available from the S Vincent de Paul office Oznam House and from Mulligan Records, Middle Street. Proceeds from the concert go to the St Vincent de Paul Society.

Kernan Andrews

Expresssionist artist to give talk at NUIG

THE LEADING Irish expressionist artist. Brian Magain-, will give next week's Talking Through Their Arts lectur NUI, Galway. The closest thing to a dominant movement in Irish art over the past 20 years was die so-called new cxprcvsionism of which responsibility, and is particularly concerned with the plight

Maguire is a leading member. He has a strong sense of social

Maguire will talk about his art al 8pm. on Tuesday October 22 in the 0 hEocha Theatre, Arts Millennium building, N I K . Tickets at 4/2 per session are available oa the door.