The Last Word

Well, as my directorial predecessor put it – that was the play that was. And a beautiful play it was too. Every single member of the cast found a moment where they shone and in concert you created something really very special.

There are a number of ways of gauging the success of a show: a happy and fulfilled cast, a director who hasn’t gone grey, a crew who have mastered each challenge presented, a full house…… We can tick all those boxes, and that is great. But for me the most important thing is that we took a wonderful play, put our own colour on it and shared it – in the anxious, palpitating lived moment that is theatre- with other people.

The (nearly 600, I think) people who came to see our Juno and the Paycock included young people who have read it in school but have never seen it brought to life, people who know it inside out, those who had never heard of the play and of course the seasoned theatre hacks who have themselves put their own ‘colour’ on Juno in the past. Judging by the responses we received I can honestly say that every person who shared our play with us got something meaningful from it.

In the thank you’s on Saturday, the cast got but a cursory mention as they had enjoyed three nights of solid applause, and I figured they were high enough without me telling them how great they were too! However, I had meant to say two specific things. Firstly, I did witness some of the best acting I have seen ‘in the flesh’ during the rehearsals and production, which was a real honour. Secondly, if I were to pick out one theme where the cast really excelled it would be timing. Not doing anything, and doing it well is a huge challenge, particularly for amateur actors. The moments of absolutely hilarity, of anguish, of expectation and of downright fear evoked by actors being brave enough to do very little for just the right length of time to establish the intent with the audience were wonderful.

Everyone has been thanked either in person or in public for the role they played, they were many and varied, and nobody shirked along the way. We hope that our new friends will stay with us, and that our old friends will return. And that we can each take something from what we put in and what we saw and build it into the fabric of our quest to bring beautiful things to life.

Le meas,
Noeleen Hartigan