Marginalised take centre stage

AS part of its residency at the Everyman, Fishamble theatre company is staging Forgotten and Silent, two acclaimed plays written and performed by Pat Kinevane.

Directed by Jim Culleton, both plays deal with vulnerable people and are rooted in Kinevane’s experience and keenly felt observations.

Forgotten gives a voice to the elderly. Written nine years ago, it was inspired by Kinevane’s visit to an elderly aunt who was dying. “She was in a beautiful nursing home in Limerick, but I remember looking around and seeing rows upon rows of beds with elderly ladies in them. They were done-up and were full of dignity, but I remembering thinking that some of them probably didn’t have visitors. They were forgotten.”

Around the same time, Kinevane’s son was born. “I had this weird observation. I noticed that even after six months, my son’s novelty was kind of fading in comparison to when he was a new-born baby. I noticed it again when he was one-year-old. Maybe it happens to all of us. I wanted to explore the whole idea of newness versus oldness and whether we’re more vulnerable when we’re old.”

Fusing dance and monologue, Kinevane plays four characters, two elderly men and two elderly women, in Forgotten. The four live in different parts of the country but are linked by an event from 1943.

“It was around this time that Ireland was starting to develop as a young nation, with varying tensions in different parts of society,” Kinevane says. He bounds onto the stage in a Japanese silk kimono, before dispensing of it. It’s a striking image that isn’t indicative of what is to follow. There is also the image of a setting sun.

“I was very much inspired by Japanese and eastern theatre. This play is not a version of Kabuki theatre or Noh theatre, but I’m influenced by them. It’s a kind of homage to an Asian spectacle. And it’s about the East versus the West. In Asia, the elderly are put on the pedestal that they deserve. In the West, we don’t revere older people the way we used to.”

Silent is “a passion to say something about the dispossessed and mental health,” Kinevane says. It’s about a homeless man, Tino McGoldrig, who has lost his possessions as well as his mind. He explores his past through the romantic figure of silent movie star, Rudolph Valentino.

“The play came out of my brush with the mental health services. I started training as a psychiatric nurse, but didn’t complete it. It was in the early ’80s and I saw how difficult it was for carers to work in an environment that wasn’t backed up and was quite Victorian. Then, in 2008, I went to New York for the first time and I saw so many homeless people. When I came home, I couldn’t stop seeing the homeless. I started to talk to them and discovered there’s no such thing as a typical homeless person.”

Silent utilises dance and gesture. “A lot of it is inspired by the silent movies, by ballroom dancing, flamenco dancing and belly dancing,” says Kinevane.

For the Fishamble residency, the Everyman will host workshops, one on directing plays and one on playwriting. All are welcome to apply.

Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. For details, go to www.everymancork.com.

Silent will be performed on Oct 29 and Oct 30. Forgotten is at the Everyman on Nov 1 and 2.

Silent is on the Peacock stage at the Abbey Theatre, Nov 6 – Dec 7.

* www.abbeytheatre.ie