Peter Coonan is keeping busy with bad men and big monsters

While he awaits news on Love/Hate, Peter Coonan is keeping busy with stage and film roles, writes Padraic Killeen

PETER Coonan — aka Fran from Love/Hate — is one of Ireland’s most versatile actors. He has built an impressive CV on screen and on stage. In the past 18 months, he has played Brendan Behan in Borstal Boy; Anglo Irish Bank executive David Drumm in The Guarantee; and Gar Public, the young protagonist of Brian Friel’s play, Philadelphia, Here I Come.

His latest project is Before Monsters Were Made, a new play by Ross Dungan. Set in Mayo in 1968, Coonan’s small-town teacher falls under suspicion when a young girl goes missing.

“It’s a thriller,” he says. “It examines how quickly gossip and rumour can shape people’s perceptions of others, and how quickly people jump on the bandwagon.”

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The play is directed by Ben Kidd, best-known for his work on Lippy, a startling play that won best production at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2013. (It was recently revived by the Abbey Theatre.) “I saw Lippy in the Peacock,” says Coonan, “And I was blown away by it. It was a remarkably original work and Ben has been great to work with. He’s a very communicative director, so it’s been interesting to dissect the script with him,” Coonan says.

Theatre is an old love for Coonan. He began drama classes when he was just four and performed in youth productions up to his teens. A greater influence was his mother, Betty, a stalwart of the amateur drama scene, who died when he was 12.

Coonan recalls a childhood spent following his mother around the amateur drama circuit, to Enniscorthy, Dundalk, and, of course, Athlone, where the annual finals were held.

“So, my love of theatre stems from seeing her onstage and seeing O’Casey and Friel and Arthur Miller at a young age,” he says. “And some of the actors I saw on the amateur circuit are still some of the best actors I’ve ever seen. So, that’s where it came from. But, then, I had to give it up in school, because I was playing sport and that was more important.”

After studying arts in UCD, Coonan drifted back to theatre, taking on roles in student productions, among them an Irish-language version of Friel’s Translations, and a Terence Rattigan play, Cause Célèbre. The latter had a special significance.

“It was a play my mum had acted in and I found a copy of the script in which she had highlighted her part,” he says. “So, that seemed like a sign to get back into it, you know?”

Coonan’s gift for performance may be genetic, then, but perhaps the enthusiasm for acting he shared with his mother reflects similarities in their personalities?

“Definitely,” he says. “I’ve no doubt that that’s the case. My mother passed away when I was 12 and I’ve been told, my whole life, that I’m very like my mother. So I definitely think that that’s the case. There are certain traits that can be passed on.

“But, then, also, I think that watching her onstage and seeing her love for what she was doing, and then doing all that yourself, it’s hard not to fall in love with it, when you see someone else in your family enjoying it so much.”

In addition to Before Monsters Were Made, Coonan also has a new film out next week. Set in post-Celtic Tiger Dublin, Get Up and Go centres on two young men — a frustrated musician (Coonan) and his best friend, an aspiring stand-up comic (played by fellow Love/Hate star, Killian Scott).

“My character plans to move to England and pursue his career, but he’s dropped a bombshell by his girlfriend when she tells him that she’s pregnant,” says Coonan. “So, he has this moral quandary on his hands. Part of him feels he deserves to go to London to pursue the life he’s always wanted, but another part of him is torn and feels he should stay and do the right thing.

“Killian’s character is more reserved and he is trying to help put me on the right track. So, it’s about their journey together.”

Coonan and Scott — friends offscreen, as well as on — have been on another journey together, on Irish television’s most successful ever drama. Has Coonan any news of what lies in store for Love/Hate? Will we be seeing Fran in a sixth season of the series? “I haven’t heard anything, at the moment,” he says. “Everyone is just off doing their own things. It’s all up to [Love/Hate creator] Stuart Carolan.”

Whatever about the future of Love/Hate, the Dublin actor knows it will remain a high watermark in his career. All the stars aligned for the show, he says.

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“We were just so lucky to have such a great team, such great scripts, and to be working with people who had the hunger and the appetite to really learn and develop these characters over three or four years,” he says.

“It was an amazing opportunity for any actor. It’s kind of what dreams are made of — to grow up watching Scorsese and Coppola films, and then, as actors, to be given the opportunity to do something at the same level in your own country, you know?”

The Dubliner doesn’t express too much surprise at the recent news that HBO’s much talked-about remake of Love/Hate will be set in Hawaii.

“Well, that backdrop will certainly give it a different atmosphere,” he says. “Hopefully, it will make all the Americans want to watch the original as well.”

If they do, then in Peter Coonan they’ll discover an actor of rare magnetism.

Before Monsters Were Made runs at the Project Arts Centre, April 30 - May 15. Get Up and Go is released on May 1.

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