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Tag: Neil Weatherall

  • The London Ear on RTÉ 2XM // Show 158 with Neil Weatherall

    The London Ear on RTÉ 2XM // Show 158 with Neil Weatherall

    The London Ear - Neil Weatherall (writer/director)
    Temperatures are more down to what I can handle this week in London. Hurrah! It’s been raining though and I’ve spent the week surrounded by Irish people so it feels a bit like Ireland.

    Highlight of the week for me was meeting my favourite film director, Baz Luhrmann, completely by chance in St Pancras Train station. I still haven’t stopped smiling.

    Interview with Neil Weatherall – Writer/Director of The Passion of The Playboy Riots

    On this week’s show I chat to Neil Weatherall about his play, The Passion of The Playboy Riots. Complete transparency here. I saw this play on Thursday night. You can read about it here. This was after I spoke to Neil about the play.

    The play runs until July 8th at The Hen and Chickens, it’s worth your time. Check it out on Facebook and Twitter.

    The London Ear on RTE 2XM // Show 158 July 1 2017 // Playlist

    1. Confidence Man: Bubblegum
    2. Brass Phantoms: City of Wolves
    3. Graham Mitchell: You’ve Disappeared
    4. Superfood: I Can’t See
    5. Larkins: Sugar Sweet
    6. Public Service Broadcasting: They Gave Me A Lamp
    7. Interview with Neil Weatherall
    8. You have to wonder:
    9. Hare Squead: Pure
    10. Billy Bibby & The Wry Smiles: Hamburg
    11. Brendan McCahey: Too Tight
    12. Video Blue: Dogged Animals
    13. Rusangano Family: Lights On

    Listen On Demand to The London Ear

    Thanks for listening, The London Ear broadcast on DAB radio, Saorview and outside Ireland you can listen online.You can listen to the show again on the RTE player. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.

    Don’t forget to check out the RTE 2XM website. You can keep up with me here.

    Check out The London Ear on Facebook and Twitter

  • Review // The Passion of The Playboy Riots at The Hen and Chickens Theatre

    Review // The Passion of The Playboy Riots at The Hen and Chickens Theatre

    The Passion of The Playboy Riots Cast

    Review // The Passion of The Playboy Riots at The Hen and Chickens Theatre

    2016, the centenary of the 1916 Rising, saw a spike in Irish historical plays here in London. Now in 2017, Neil Weatherall’s ‘The Passion of The Playboy Riots’ has been given the space it deserves to get noticed.

    Running in The Hen and Chickens Theatre in Highbury, the play is set backstage at The Abbey Theatre and is centred around conversations between W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and Padraig Pearse.
    Starting on opening night of W.B Yeats’ Cathleen Ní Houlihan of 1902, we move to 1907 and J.M Synge’s Playboy of the Western World and finally to 1926 and Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars.

    A young Pearse is introduced, a barrister, trying to get Yeats to use some of his scripts. This is at a time when Yeats himself is surrounded by self doubt. As the play goes on through time, we see the relationship develop, with Pearse’s initial respect for Yeats changing into heated debate between the two about the future of Ireland. Yeats wanted theatre to spark a change in Ireland.

    If you don’t know much about this era of history, Yeats quotes from the corn laws and this will get you up to speed with the background.

    The staging is simple but works in this setting, using the dark curtain behind them as the curtain backstage at The Abbey, occasionally listening to the goings on that stage. Totally meta. Justin McKenna and Loclann O’Grady look remarkably like Pearse and Yeats which definitely adds to the piece. McKenna is particularly good, showing the changing in Pearse from the young barrister to future revolutionary. Cath Humphrys is very much at home as Lady Gregory.

    At 50 minutes long, the script packs a lot in and it never droops. It also features some very witty one liners. And almost..almost does a Mrs Doyle, here, with whiskey. It is an Irish thing no matter what anyone says.

    I really enjoyed the angle this piece took. We’ve seen films made set behind the scenes when making films. The Passion of the Playboy Riots takes that idea to the stage. A bigger stage and budget would take this to the next level.

    This production is intelligent, witty, and educational. Got an hour to spare? Go check it out.

    The Passion of The Playboy Riots runs at the Hen and Chickens in Highbury until July 8th.

    Thanks to the director of the play, Neil Weatherall, for inviting me to the show.