The Blue Boy of Glenmore, by Joe Brennan

Love this poster.

It's getting closer. My dad's latest play. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one. To date, I've only read the script. Seeing it, with the high standard of acting long associated with Brassneck Theatre Company, will make for a fantastic experience. And yeah, all right. Because I'm family, it's likely I'm biased, but I know that of the four plays he's written on his own since we co-wrote The Sweety Bottle, this one best showcases Joe Brennan's strengths as a playwright. Can't wait to see how Tony Devlin's vision of it comes out on the stage.

Check out the Brassneck Theatre Company website for updates on venues, ticket sales, etc. If you can't make the opening run at the Roddy McCorley Social Club you might find a tour venue that suits.

So did you click it? Go on. Need more convincing? Check out the pitch:

Winter 1978. Cooley Mountains, Ireland.

Jemmy John is a tortured soul. The sheep on the glen and the farm are his life, but his younger sister Colleen yearns for something much more.

With the help of a local car mechanic, Colleen is determined to escape Glenmore for the chance at a better life... but her older brother Jemmy is having none of it! The life-long conflict between these sibling rivals is the catalyst that ignites the shocking events that unfold.

An absorbingly haunting and sensational dark-comedy, 'The Blue Boy of Glenmore' is a truly unmissable piece of theatre from the multi award-winning Brassneck Theatre Company, who brought you 'The Holy Holy Bus', 'Man in the Moon' & 'A Night With George'

Now click the link.

Bumming and Blowing

The title? Bumming and blowing? It actually doesn't have any sexual connotations (yes, I lower the tone so you don't have to). The Belfast side of my family use this phrase when they think somebody is boasting. "Him? Ach, he's just bumming and blowing again..."

Why is this titled so? I've been thinking about writing an 'end of year' blog post for a few days now, and can't help but think that it can only read as an ego trip on my part. I just want to tell everybody what a great year I had without boasting. Not easy, and the temptation is to simply say nothing. But I don't want to be ungrateful either. The year's been very good to me and my wee family. Rest assured, we've had plenty of downs to go with our ups; nobody gets an easy ride. And while I've had good luck, I've also worked my backside off. Seriously, it's quite a bit smaller than it was at the start of the year.

This being a blog that's supposed to be about reading and writing, I'll just mention one momentous day in 2013 that changed my entire life.

13/3/13, I saw the first stage performance of The Sweety Bottle and found out that I'd been accepted onto a funded creative writing PhD at Queen's University Belfast. Thank you to Brassneck Theatre Company and all who've helped me at QUB's School of English (staff and fellow students alike). Some individuals deserve more thanks than others, but I'm too scared that I'll leave somebody out and offend them, so no list of names. I do need to thank Blasted Heath, however, the awesome digital publisher that believes in and pushes my prose beyond all my expectations.

But, yeah... 13/3/13 (or 3/13/13 US Style, though I prefer the symmetry on our side of the pond). That was an incredible Wednesday, dampened only by the fact that one of my sons managed to get something stuck up his nose and had to be taken to hospital. Up, up, down. But even the nose incident was a nice reminder of how good I have it. My wife took care of the boy and sat with him for hours in A&E while I watched the play with my father (and co-writer of The Sweety Bottle), my mother, my eldest sister, her husband, their baby (in bump form) and a bunch of Brennan family members who were able to attend.

I have one resolution for 2014. Work harder.

If I continue to put the effort in, I get to be a full-time student and writer -- that's right, no office day-job for the foreseeable future -- until well into 2016. After that...?

Let's just hope I don't fuck up, eh?

Happy new year, people.

Man In The Moon by Pearse Elliott

A promo video for MAN IN THE MOON, Pearse Elliott's new play, starring Ciaran Nolan, brought to you by Brassneck Theatre Company.

I'm looking forward to seeing this in a couple of weeks. What about you?

Dates and venue pop up at the end of the video.

If you're not in reasonable travelling distance to Belfast, consider this promo a tasty wee short film. Let's make this thing to go viral, yeah?

Toilet Humour

At one of the Grand Opera House performances of The Sweety Bottle, a lady remarked, "This is all bad language and toilet humour!"

Unbeknownst to her, she relayed this discovery to one of the co-writer's sisters who then relayed it to the co-writer sitting beside her. Rumour has it that this particular co-writer* smiled as if he'd read the remark in a five-star review.

Toilet humour, like? From such a sophisticated mind? Really?

Go away and shite.

Enjoy this randomly selected snippet from The Sweety Bottle.



*The co-writer was me.

Back off the Wagon

If you missed it the first time, get on this! Tickets available now.

Visit the Brassneck Theatre Company website.

Bittersweety Bye-Bye

I really need to get some pun lessons from Declan Burke...

But here, that's the end of The Sweety Bottle's regional tour. I'm kind of stuck for words, to be honest. It's been emotional, you know? Luckily, Terrence Blaine has plenty to say in his review. It starts out like this:

"When Joe Brennan was a boy growing up in Belfast, his grandfather took over a confectionery store in the Lower Falls area, and installed an illegal drinking club in it. Things that happened in the so-called 'Sweety Bottle', and the characters who drank there, swiftly became the stuff of family legend, and were much debated and discussed over the Brennan family dinner table. Forty years later, in collaboration with his son Gerard, Joe has woven a selection of Sweety Bottle stories together in a two-act play, revisiting a place now gone (levelled in the interests of urban redevelopment), but certainly not forgotten in the memories of those who grew up in the West Belfast area.

Good as the stories are (the audience is in a virtually constant state of hilarity), the danger is that The Sweety Bottle could easily have ended up seeming merely episodic, a string of unconnected anecdotes with no particular reason for putting them on a stage together.

The Brennans have, however, managed their raw material much more cleverly than that: from an early stage the narrative is bound together by lugubrious references to a certain Grinder McVeigh, who has torched a neighbouring shebeen for barring him..." 

Read the rest here.

The Sweety Bottle -- Coming VERY soon!

Belfast in the 1970s. At the rear of Brennan’s sweet shop, a popular ‘shebeen’ is in full swing. This secret drinking den is a place where punters come to escape the troubles around them and to exorcise their own personal demons.

Through the many huge characters and calamitous incidents, we embark on a voyage to an era where the city and its people never ceased to find humour in even the darkest of times.

A hilariously nostalgic trip down memory lane, ‘The Sweety Bottle’ is sure to have you crying with laughter as we remember everything that was good about Belfast during the rare auld times.

Directed by Tony Devlin

Written by Joe Brennan and Gerard Brennan

Starring Marty Maguire, Carol Moore, Lalor Roddy, Gordon Fulton, Gerard Jordan and Ciaran Nolan

The tour is starting next week! Check the Brassneck Theatre Company website for tour dates.
 

Good News, Everyone!

I don't know if it's the planetary alignment, karmic back-pay or just dumb luck, but this has been quite a month. Me and my da met Tony Devlin for a coffee at lunch time today and talked about our play, The Sweety Bottle. Tony is an accomplished actor who has branched out and founded Brassneck Theatre Company. Tony read, enjoyed and offered to professionally produce The Sweety Bottle in Spring 2010. We're gratefully taking him up on that offer.

It's a long way off, but Belfast theatre (like publishing) is dependent on funding, and since The Sweety Bottle is a six-man show, they're gonna need a lot of cash. So, Brassneck plan to put on a one-woman show, a two-man show and then our play.

If nothing else, this writing malarkey has taught me patience. When you think about the time it takes to write a novel, get an answer from a publisher or catch a lucky break, a year seems like nothing to me. But to sweeten the deal, they'll probably do a reading of the play in this year's West Belfast festival. August 2009. Doesn't seem too far away.

Anyway, another lesson learned. Make sure the next stage play only needs one or two actors.