Still Playing About With Old Thoughts

I'm thinking about writing a lot lately (as a precursor to writing a lot). In order to get this blog active again, I think I'm going to post a series of links to interviews or blog posts I've done about writing. I'll either signpost it and say I still agree with what I thought then, or challenge that past version of me by calling bullshit on whatever advice I have since learned is no pearl of wisdom.

Because of yesterday's post about my dad's upcoming play, The Blue Boy, set in Omeath (just across Carlingford Lough from Warrenpoint where I've set a bunch of stories myself), I figured I'd start with this fun interview we did for Owen Quinn's Time Warriors site in the midst of The Sweety Bottle's modest success.

Click here, people!

And while I work on the second Shannon McNulty novel (one of my Warrenpoint based works), I'll be thinking about these encouraging words from my father:

"Of course he got his skills from me. I won five shillings for writing, at the age of ten. That was forty eight years ago. I can still remember the two big silver half crowns, it was a fortune in those days. Seriously, I won’t try to take any credit for Gerard’s achievements, there was too much hard work and determination on his part to get where he is now. We worked very well together I think that was quite unusual."

This might be one of my favourite writing interviews. It's like a virtual pat on the head.

Papa's Got a Brand New Play

A quick apology to Declan Burke for stealing his blog title style. Imitation and flattery, squire.

And so, you lucky people who read this, should get ready for the latest Joe Brennan play. I've been reliably informed that The Blue Boy is in production with Brassneck Theatre. I've read this play, but had no hand in editing or rewriting. This is a true blue Joe Brennan piece. And it's incredibly powerful. I really can't wait to see this one. And that's not just because I'm Joe Brennan's son. My father has been writing solo for years now, and this play is his masterpiece.

I would have bummed and blown more about The Sweety Bottle (set and writers pictured above) had I not been one of the co-writers. My braggadocios nature needs to be kept on a short leash. And I don't lie about other people's work. If I don't like it, I'll rarely attack it (unless it's a measured critical essay or something boring like that). I won't talk about it at all, really.

Anyway, I'll post a blurb for Joe Brennan's new play as and when it becomes available. Watch this space.

He has me thinking about working on another play (I've written a couple solo myself the last few years) but I really need knuckle down and finish the second book featuring my Warrenpoint detective, Shannon McNulty.

Peace, folks.

Reflections on The Sweety Bottle

It’s a bittersweet thing when your play comes to the end of its run. I’ve felt it a number of times now for The Sweety Bottle. We were spoiled by that first outing (thanks again to ACNI) and yet I experienced a wee sense of loss after it finished up at The Roddie McCorley Club (where I saw it in all of its glory for the very first time). Then again at the end of its run at The Baby Grand. And once more after it finished its regional tour. I only caught the Downpatrick date (where it brought down the house), but it was really lovely to think about the play out and about on its own. Like the idiot teenage son you kicked out of home for his own good. Basically, the words I penned with my da were making people laugh while I chilled on my sofa. Mind-bending.

And then last week we had a dig at the big stage in The Grand Opera House. Let me repeat; The Sweety Bottle rocked the GOH auditorium…

I stopped writing this for ten minutes to really appreciate that. Thousands of people saw the play last week. THOUSANDS!

So, thank you to Tony Devlin and all the Brassneckers who brought it from the page to the stage. Niall Cullen told me it would happen after that first night at the Roddie’s. I believed him but didn’t appreciate the gravity of his promise. And thank you to the actors who put their hearts and souls into the performance, night after night. Marty Maguire, Katie Tumelty, Lalor Roddy, Ciaran Nolan, Gerard Jordan and Gordon Fulton… youse are buck-loop and utterly brilliant. I’ll be dropping your names like hot spuds for the rest of my writing career.

And Carolyn Stewart at U105… Your cheque’s in the post.

I’m confident my da, Joe Brennan, shares the same sentiment.

Special thanks to the extended Brennan family for all the support. The play honours my grandfather and grandmother, and by extension, their legendary brood. I couldn’t ask for more.

Actually… I wouldn’t say no to another run. Just saying.

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.

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.

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Ladies

Click the above image to read. This is the sixth of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Ladies first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Monday 26th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Rabbit

Click the above image to read. This is the fith of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Rabbit first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Saturday 24th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Mexican

Click the above image to read. This is the fourth of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Mexican first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Monday 19th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Missus

Click the above image to read. This is the third of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Missus first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Saturday 17th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Mouse

Click the above image to read. This is the second of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Mouse first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Monday 12th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009

Tales from the Sweety Bottle - The Badge

Click the above image to read. This is the first of a six-part series of stories based on Brennan family anecdotes. The Sweety Bottle was a Lower Falls shebeen ran by my grandfather in the seventies. The Badge first appeared in the Andersonstown News on Saturday 10th January 2009.

Copyright ⓒ Gerard Brennan 2009