Question of Taste: Naomi Daly, Everyman Theatre
Naomi Daly of the Everyman in Cork.
I’ve mostly had my head stuck in scripts recently, but I am half way through A Ghost In The Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa which is absolutely brilliant. Caoineadh Uí Airt O Laoghaire was a text I had become familiar with working on Sea Trilogy – an opera work we unfortunately had to cancel early in the Covid restrictions. The way Ní Ghríofa explores the poem in parallel to the modern day story is beautiful and enthralling.
Two films on Netflix that stand out for me recently are Marriage Story and Uncut Gems, very different films but both with absolutely stellar performances.
I was lucky enough to see a performance of Watt by Barry McGovern the night before the theatre locked down. I was also lucky enough to get a sneak peak at a work in progress called Our Tethered Kin by BrokenCrow theatre company recently, and if those eight minutes are anything to go by they have something very special in the works.
I’ve been listening to a songcycle called Lilith. It’s a preview copy of an album that’s coming out soon by Karen Underwood and John O’Brien.
I was lucky enough to work on the original production and it’s great to see it getting a new lease of life.
I’ve been lucky to experience plenty of really emotional pieces of theatre, opera and dance, but the first piece of theatre that really moved me was probably a panto as a kid, I was totally transported by the magic of it all.
Oh that’s impossible to answer, I can give you a top 5 – The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, Pagliacci, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Asking For It, and Walking Man by Graffiti Theatre Company.
We don’t have a TV at home any more, I’m never at home at prescribed times to watch anything weekly so we gave up the telly and we binge stuff on streaming services instead.
There is so much available online now and I love getting lost in a mini-series.
Criminal, Norsemen, Ratched and Little Fires Everywhere are currently in heavy rotation, depending on what I’m in the mood for.
Lyric FM is a staple in our house, it’s always on in the background. When I’m out and about I’m constantly listening to podcasts, No Such Thing As A Fish is brilliant from the QI elves and Desert Island Disks, David Tennant and Mike Birbiglia usually have some really interesting guests.
If I had unlimited time, resources and space: The Strange Undoing Of Prudencia Hart – a remount of our 2015 production, probably the most fun I have ever had on a production; The Walworth Farce – with the Gleesons of course; and a massive spectacular musical like Cabaret, and I’d give a stage to Olivia Coleman to do whatever she wanted.
I was standing onstage after a performance one Sunday afternoon when Paula Lambert landed Bosco on my shoulder for a quick chat, it was one of the most surreal and delightful moments of my life!
I’d go back to the Everyman at the turn of the 20th century for a night of vaudeville, just to see what it was like, experience the atmosphere (and probably the mayhem) of what the venue was like back then.
Stage crew, they are behind every performance, nothing happens without them and they never get the recognition they deserve.
Funding! I’d ensure that everyone working in the arts earned a living wage. Barring sweets with noisy wrappers from auditoriums would be a close second.
