Picture: Brian Gavin/ Press 22
THE salons of No. I Pery Square Hotel filled to hear of Bottom Dog’s plans for 2017 productions – an eye-watering seven – and their Irish premier about to open.
‘Drinking in America’ by Eric Bogosian will preview this Tuesday 7, 8pm at Belltable and run to Thursday 9. Directed by US national Patrick J Byrnes, this is a one man show with Liam O’Brien playing a dozen characters in New York of the 1980s.
The actor gave it socks at the launch: “Some of these characters think very unsavoury things. There is talk about hatred, there is talk about excluding people because of their sexuality or their colour and their very existence”. His theatre company chose an American to mould the show.
Patrick J Byrnes is an actor/ director who stars in Oliver Stone’s hit ‘Snowden’, in cinemas now, as deputy director of America’s National Security Agency. The room laughed when we heard it was another job up for grabs these days.
“Stone is very intelligent,” comments Byrnes. “He works very quickly and because he has a hand in the writing, he changes things as they run – and it usually makes sense”.
On to directing the play. He tells Limerick Post that “‘Drinking in America’ is interesting because these are 12 different characters [played sequentially]. There are people who live on the street – a homeless man, there’s a junkie. There’s an evangelical character whose words kind of reflect verbatim the words of Donald Trump.
“It is a lot to be taken on be one person, who has everything to do”.
Picture: Brian Gavin/ Press 22
With Liam O’Brien on stage carrying the dynamic, Byrnes makes the point that rehearsals present challenges for them both. Energy and intensity have to be preserved.
From Buffalo, New York, this creative spent his youth working in theatre and film, coincidentally inhabiting Bogosian’s circles – the playwright was first an actor. Byrnes moved to live in Dublin 20 years ago.
A past collaborator with Bottom Dog, Stephen Ryan of Windings is scoring the project with original works.
“It looks like we might hear one or two tracks familiar to people. Also some poetry from the 1960s poet Amiri Barack”, whom the director knew while working in his home city NY.
Book on www.limetreetheatre.ie to watch Bottom Dog burn up the stage in this angry shout out to self-interest, bigotry, violence and its ilk.
Tuesday 7 preview is €12.
