Cork Academy of Performing Arts is instilling the spirit of Les Miserables

There is, we are told, no business like show business, and every year brings more and more starry-eyed youngsters beating at the doors of success and fame.

Thu, 25 Aug, 2016 - 01:00

Jo Kerrigan

Only an infinitesimal few will make it to the top, but still they keep coming. At Cork Academy of Performing Arts (CADA), director Catherine Mahon-Buckley makes sure her students are aware of the challenges ahead from the moment they come through the door.

“The trouble these days is that they see what they think is instant fame in TV contests, and on YouTube. They don’t realise how much work went into that for every performer. I tell them go for it, follow your dream, but if by the age of 30 you haven’t got a roof over your head, can’t afford transport, then look for another way of earning your living.”

Keeping your feet firmly on the ground is essential, she emphasises. As is “working your butt off 24/7.”

Right now Mahon-Buckley is deep into rehearsals for Les Miserables which opens at Cork’s Firkin Crane next week.

Taking her dictum seriously, the cast have been milling eagerly around the doors even before they open, impatient to get going.

Now the dressing rooms are swirling with noise, chatter, energy and enthusiasm. Moving from one group to another, Mahon-Buckley is calm, reassuring, but always driving her cast to work to their own personal best.

It is here, she explains, that they get the training and the discipline that will stand them in good stead for the future, whatever path they choose.

“Not all of them will go on into the performing arts, but everything they learn here — making an entrance, speaking with confidence, presenting well — will be of enormous use wherever they go. There will be times when they feel like giving up, but here they learn that the show must go on.”

That maxim is something Mahon-Buckley emphatically practises in her own life. For several years now, her mother has been hospitalised with cancer, which creates a burden on any daughter’s life.

“But Mum is so positive, so outgoing, that it’s keeping her in great form, and that helps me too in dealing with her situation.”

Then, a year or so back, Mahon-Buckley herself suddenly discovered that she also had cancer, and that immediate major surgery was essential.

“I told them I couldn’t possibly go into hospital. I was adjudicating at a festival, I had productions coming up. I had too much on. They told me bluntly I didn’t have the option if I wanted to survive. The stress levels shot through the roof, I can tell you!” But, she says, having her job to get back to, students dependent on her, venues booked, bills to be paid, was of huge benefit. Doctors always stress a positive mental attitude and I can tell you that it helped me get through that phase of my life.” The barricades spirit of Les Mis, in fact? “Exactly. As a performer and director I have to be strong, and I always try to pass that on.”

Any production of Les Miserables (now officially the world’s longest-running musical) is a huge undertaking, but one which is relished by Mahon-Buckley.

You get the distinct idea that she positively welcomes enormous casts and towering challenges, and her cast follow that lead. Soon they will be returning to school or college, looking to the future.

They aren’t likely to forget what they’ve learned here.