by Rose Rushe
LIMERICK has the privilege of hosting the last two shows of ‘The Real McCoy’ with its original cast, having toured for three years plus with sell out stints.
Arrive for this Irish/ drama/ comedy/ amateur/ professional production at Lime Tree Theatre this Thursday 21 or Friday 22, 8pm to absorb what episodes 199 and 200 have to offer.
Producer Tommy Marren, who wrote the script and is one of seven actors, outlines to Arts page what has made ‘The Real McCoy’ the runner it is. He plays the curate Fr Michael McCoy in this show set in the 1960s, who, we are assured, “is a very good man indeed”.
“Madge – a sort of Big Maggie figure for Mayo – is a cold character who has lived 40 years of her life with the embarrassment of her husband having left her. Madge does not suffer fools and it doesn’t help that her only child, Laura, is committed to a gormless fool of a postman. And when as a mother she talks about Dad, there is no good to be said.”
Life quickens on the homecoming of the man who abandoned his wife of five months when she was with child. “The ‘Real McCoy’ is all about his imminent return”, allegedly to make good the wrongs and sign over the precious land and homestead.
Yet Marren speaks of an uplifting comedy drama (quote: “He was as lazy as sin. If there was work to be done in the bed, he’d sleep in the wardrobe”) that gets beyond the conflict and nosy neighbours to kindle a flame of hope.
“Ultimately, overall, there’s a feelgood vibe to play, I can guarantee that”. www.limetreetheatre.ie