WHEN a small show makes it big on the world stage, it’s time to cheer. All the more when the play is new Irish writing and brought to life by Irish production companies and Irish actors. Anita Reeves and Stephen Brennan are acclaimed theatre and film actors, Anita most notably on John Huston’s Oscar winning adaptation, ‘The Dead’
Together they are the two characters, Seán, bound by wheelchair and Patricia, a retired teacher of ‘The Halcyon Days’ . This piece was written by Deirdre Kinahan and “it’s one of those shows, like ‘Little Gem’ that ran for a week at Dublin Theatre Festival and then was picked up,” comments Anita, star of each. ”For us it was the Irish Arts Centre in New York where we played for a month in that 99-seater theatre”.
Now touring the country, ‘The Halcyon Days’ comes to Lime Tree Theatre this Friday July 5 and Saturday 6pm, 8pm fresh from a run in the Olympia. So what’s the story here, Anita?
“‘These Halcyon Days’ is a really hard play to describe,” she admits down the line from Galway where the show was playing. “It could be set anywhere. It’s really about relationships, companionships, love, with people who meet in what I would call unusual circumstances. There is a message of the significance of very deep, meaningful relationships.
“Is it a love story? It’s certainly about love. My own character is a retired schoolteacher, a bit angry when we meet her first , a little intolerant. He’s a much more accepting person and.. they knock great craic out of each other”.
With respect to the tight team of herself and Stephen Brennan, she makes the point that although they know each other for 40 years, they have only worked togehter three or four times: “We are very lucky, there’s only two of us in this play and we work very well together.
A feel good show for a Summer weekend. At Lime Tree Theatre this Friday July 5 and Saturday 6 at 8pm, tel. 061-774774.
