PM O’Sullivan
Photos of Joe murray as Da character by Ken McGuire
Joe Murray is coming down the stairs in St Kieran’s College.
The year? Early 1980, best of his recollection. That young man? A Kilkenny native, working in Smithwick’s Brewery., one taking his first plunge in local drama.
“It was a farce,” Murray clarifies. “A Ben Travers farce, Rookery Nook the first piece I did with New Theatre Group. The plays were put on then in the College. As I was going down, on the last night, Tony Patterson was coming up.
“Tony had directed the play, and he was a brilliant comedy director. He loved that kind of comedy. He could see things in a farce that you wouldn’t see yourself.”
Then a moment of clarity: “Tony turned to me, as we passed, and said: ‘You’re hooked.’ And he was right.”
The clarity proved of lasting kind. As Murray elaborates: “I really got into it, and went from one play to another. They revived the pantomimes around the same time. The first one was probably 1982 or 1983, Cinderella or something. I got into that as well.”
Reminiscences hang in the air because this man is about to take the title role in Hugh Leonard’s Da (1973), that famous work centred on a son’s ambivalent feelings about his parents. Ger Cody’s Lake Productions will mount six performances in Thomastown Community Hall on March 14-16 and March 21-23. “It’s a terrific facility down there,” Murray emphasizes. “They run the Hall really well. Would do anything for you.”
His involvement with drama runs back over 50 years, whole truth told. Born in 1958, he grew up in Dean Kavanagh Place. A classic Kilkenny life has been lived by someone who became one of the county’s most accomplished actors.
“I went to school in the CBS, both primary and secondary,” Murray outlines. “I suppose you could call it a real Dicksboro upbringing. I hurled underage with The ’Boro. We were always out the green, with our friends. We had a totally outdoor life, unlike kids today.”
He continues: “I did a few plays in the CBS, school plays in primary school. But the first adult play was in secondary school. We did The Royal Hunt of the Sun, by Peter Shaffer. It’s about the Spanish conquistadores going over to South America. I’d say I was about 14. I played the role of Francisco Pizarro.”
A taste for drama regained, in time, its grip. “The Royal Hunt of the Sun, I didn’t do a whole lot else,” Murray notes. “I went working in the Brewery in 1975, after my Leaving Cert, and there I met Brendan Corcoran. I kind of knew him already because years before, when we were youngsters, we both knew Mike Kelly, who was later involved in forming Young Irish Film Makers.
“Mike was already involved in plays. He was only a teenager himself, and I was only about nine or ten. I remember Brendan doing a play with Mike called Three Knaves of Normandy, in which I had a small little role. Besides, Brendan only lived across from us in Dean Kavanagh, down in St Francis Terrace.”
Murray started journeying towards that moment in St Kieran’s College: “Brendan was heavily into New Theatre Group. He said: “Do you want to read for a play? We’re doing it in the spring.” So I did, and I got a part in Rookery Nook.
The veteran provides an intriguing take on different registers: “I liked doing serious stuff, like Peter Shaffer, but I also got a serious kick out of the comedy. It’s probably because you hear the audience. You’re hearing the laughter. It gives you a boost, hearing the audience reaction. Comedy is way more immediate.
“But I enjoyed doing the serious plays as well. If they work, it’s powerful. You’re not hearing anything, with the serious ones. But that’s a good sign. You know you have them hooked if they’re not making a sound. You’d say to yourself: ‘I must be doing something right, because they’re really listening.’ It’s another kind of boost.”
Murray embraced breadth: “There was a group of us, ten or 12 of us, that seemed to be on the same wavelength. We started doing one act comedies in the Clubhouse [Hotel]. Summer season of one act comedies, Wednesday and Thursday night, over four or five weeks.
“We also did them in John Cleere’s in Parliament Street, during the 1990s. That was great craic. And we called ourselves Gaslight Theatre Company.”
Working acquaintance with the author of Da soon arrived. As Murray explains: “One of those plays was Hugh Leonard’s The Late Arrival of the Incoming Aircraft. It’s a half hour one act play, very funny. That was a big hit.”
Closer acquaintance followed: “Then Ger [Cody] did Da for the first time in 1994, at the Watergate Theatre. He was on to Hugh Leonard to come. I’m sure Leonard had seen Da ten million times…
“Anyway, he said to Ger: ‘Will there be many at it?’ Ger replied: ‘Not so many. You’d have a fantastic chance of winning the raffle.’ Eventually a postcard arrived: ‘Book seats. Fix raffle.’ We took Hugh Leonard for a drink afterwards, and he was grand, in fairness.”
Those years crowded with entertainment. Murray smiles at the memories: “I was lucky enough to be involved with three All Ireland-winning one act plays: Pvt. Wars, Interview and Ritual for Dolls. They stretched from 1987 to 1992. We travelled with a couple of them. We went to different festivals. We went to Canada, went to Sweden.
“Then, in the early nineties, when Watergate Theatre opened, a group of us went as Watergate Productions. Ger would do maybe two plays a year, and a panto as well. For that first Da, Dónal O’Brien played Da. I played Charlie, his son.”
This new production in Thomastown counts as a return for Joe Murray. As he relates: “It’s funny… I haven’t done any acting in about five years. The last play I did was also for Lake Productions. It was called Trad. We put it on in John Cleere’s. Myself, Derek Dooley, and Mike Kelly.
“And I said after that: ‘I think I’ll forget about it now. I’m too long in the tooth for this kind of thing.’ That was my mood.”
The force of swerve: “But Ger and myself were driving to see a friend in hospital, a few months back. He told me he was thinking of putting on Da again. He said: ‘Would you play him?’
“Never occurred to me. I never thought of the possibility. Ger said: ‘Just see.’ I actually directed Da at one point, about 2012, with Dónal again in the role.
That same hook, decades later: “So I went back to the script. And said to myself: ‘I might have a stab.’ I’m enjoying it. We’re well into the rehearsals and I’d say it should be a nice production. I think everyone gets something out of Da because everyone thinks about their parents. That’s its universal aspect.”
Another moment of clarity: “But it really had never occurred to me to think of playing Da. I suppose it didn’t occur to me that I was getting old.”
Da runs at Thomastown Concert hall for a total of six performances.
Tickets available
https://gr8events.ie/lakeproductionsda
