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A SKULL IN CONNEMARA
by Martin McDonagh.  NOMINATED FOR MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS AWARD.
"BEST SPECIAL ENTERTAINMENT" REVIEWS: Manchester Evening News - The Stage - Liverpool Daily Post. Review - Manchester Evening News (August 2000). A Skull in Connemara
Summer shows in the park tend to favour Shakespearean comedy or something cute. So independent theatre company Rocket makes a big break with tradition with this adult-only, gothic black comedy as part of the Manchester Festival. Irish writer Martin McDonagh's blood-splattered script, part thriller-whodunit, part farce, is set mostly in an Irish village graveyard, where Mick (Steve Evets) disinters human remains every autumn to make way for new arrivals. To help him, he has the local tearaway Mairtin (Andrew Stevenson) and village gossip Maryjohnny (Mary-Ann Coburn) occasionally drops by on the way home from bingo. Local cop Thomas (Padraic McIntyre) is stupid but not adverse to a little evidence manipulation if it helps him win promotion. As Mick gets to the grave of his wife - killed in a car crash - rumours abound and there is much skullduggery and blood before the living and the dead can rest easy. This is a very sharp production - directed by Rocket founder Martin Harris - and acted with gusto by the excellent cast. It works extremely well outdoors and Rocket make a further welcome break with tradition by sticking to the one location instead of trailing everyone all over the place. You need a folding chair and insect repellent and then you're guaranteed a memorable and comfortable night out.
- Alan Hulme.
Review - The Stage (August 2000). A Skull in Connemara Public parks usually house family-geared productions like Robin Hood or Alice in Wonderland. But Rocket Theatre Company has added a new dimension to open air productions with Martin McDonagh's macabre tale performed at Heaton Park. The content of this adult entertainment is dark, the humour black, and the language frank. The scene is set when a lone violinist strolls through the woodland setting between a smoking fire and an open grave. At the graveside works Mick Dowd, played by Steve Evets, who is hired to disinter human remains in the local cemetery. His assistant is the feckless Mairtin, played by Andrew Stevenson, who taunts him about his dead wife, killed in a car crash under suspicious circumstances. The plot thickens when it is discovered that her body is missing. Surprisingly there is humour in this whodunit. Much of it is supplied by Mary-Ann Coburn as the nosy Maryjohnny Rafferty who would stir up any scandal for a free drink. With the appearance of Padraic McIntrye as Thomas, Mairtin's brother, who is also the local policeman weaned on too many television cops and robbers, things take a sinister turn. The music played by Catriona Martin certainly helps to convey the twists and turns in the plot. The company's aim is to perform and encourage new writing, and certainly this atmospheric production by founder and artistic director Martin Harris makes for a most unusual outdoor entertainment which, during what is left of the summer, is on a brief tour of northern parks.
- Natalie Angelsey.
Review - Liverpool Daily Post (July 2000). A Skull in Connemara Mick Dowd - the leading character in A Skull in Connemara - has a peculiar job each year, digging up old bodies from an Irish graveyard to make way for new ones. My equally bizarre annual task is to sit in parks at night watching open air performances of plays like this. Despite the vagaries of the British weather, open air summer theatre is a growing phenomenon and the Manchester-based Rocket Theatre is the latest to tackle the genre. Its contribution, Martin McDonagh's Irish black comedy A Skull in Connemara, is at least different in having a small cast of just four and a base in Wirral's Arrowe Park which doesn't usually host things like this. A gallant band of theatre-goers braved last night's grey skies for the opening performance of Rocket's tour and was rewarded with a beautifully performed version of this often amusing if minor comedy. The plot involves Mick being forced to dig up his late wife Oona who died as a result of his drunken driving. Throw in a village bobby with a fixation with American TV cops, his young scallywag of a brother Mairtin and an old biddy Maryjohnny Rafferty and you can depend on lots of Irish whimsy and crackling dialogue. Much of the time that is what we get with Steve Evets providing a gloomy Mick, Padriac Hanlon the stereotypical daft Irish bobby, Andrew Stevenson a noisy Mairtin and Mary-Ann Coburn a delightfully comic biddy. There are times when it doesn't work so well. Visitors to the show at the park where it runs all this week should be advised to take their own deck chairs. And parents be warned - it's not really one for the kiddies.
- Philip Key. 
  
© Rocket Theatre 2002 |
