Conal Creedon on bringing his Second City Trilogy back home for a Cork broadcast 

The Cork writer was born and raised near the Everyman theatre, a venue that has included three of his plays in a series of rehearsed readings available to the public 

Conal Creedon and his dog outside the Everyman in Cork. 

The Everyman Theatre has a special place in my heart. Known locally as the Palace, this majestic old Victorian playhouse continues to be at the cutting edge of live entertainment in the city ever since the curtain first went up back in the late 1800s. With its red velvet seats sweeping down from the gods, baroque stucco ceiling, ornate brocade boxes, we are invited to leave reality and rain at the door and enter into this magical world of suspended disbelief.

Located a few doors up the street from where my family has lived and traded for over a century, the Everyman has always been part of my life. I sometimes joke that I can make my way from my fireside couch at home and be seated in the theatre in less time than it takes the actors to get from the dressing room to the stage. So, it put a pep in my step to see my play up in lights on the portico last November. 

 Made in Cork: Play It by Ear, is an Everyman  initiative aimed at bridging the connection between audience and live performance during Covid-19 restrictions. This project will livestream nine stage plays online as rehearsed readings, and I was well pleased to be included in the programme.

Second City Trilogy explores communication in father/son relationships. Of course the sights, sounds and scents familiar to all Corkonians play a significant part, while the streetscape, culture and personality of the city come together in some productions as a full-blooded character.

 The Cork-centric nature of the plays was recently identified by a reviewer: "They say if Dublin was burnt down it could be rebuilt again by reading the work of James Joyce – well the very same could be said about Creedon’s work – Cork city could be built from his words." (Malachy McCourt, WBAI New York)

 The Second City Trilogy consists of three short plays: The Cure, When I Was God and After Luke – commissioned by Cork European City of Culture, and premiered at Halfmoon Theatre in 2005. It's true to say that we were surprised that the plays seemed to resonate so well with audiences during Cork2005. The initial production schedule of four weeks was extended and ran from March right through to August before finally transferring to the main Opera House stage.

Frankie McCafferty, Donncha Crowley and Michael Patric in the production of Second City Trilogy in  2005. 

The fickle finger of fate can sometimes point in your favour, particularly when destiny and luck contrive to intervene. Thankfully we were very fortunate when a small showcase production in New York came to the attention of the New York Irish Repertory Theatre. The following year, they produced two of the plays [When I Was God and After Luke]. More good fortune when the New York Times theatre critics gave the plays their seal of approval, and the production was extended into summer 2009.

The success in America spurred interest on the far side of the planet, and the Shanghai Repertory Theatre Company came on board to co-produce When I Was God and After Luke as part of the Culture Ireland programme for World Expo Shanghai 2010. The following year The Cure was produced at the JUE International Theatre Festival Shanghai. Over the past ten years The Second City Trilogy has travelled to New York a number of times, most recently in December 2019.  

Back in 1998, when I first set out on the road to become a full-time writer, the Everyman appointed me as writer-in-residence and I'm very grateful for that opportunity. During that time I wrote a very early working draft of When I Was God, which was workshopped by Red Kettle Theatre Company in Waterford, directed by Pat Kiernan, artistic director of Corcadorca. So when Pat agreed to feature in this current production of When I Was God there was a sense of continuity, coming full circle, a sense of homecoming.

This week - it will be exactly sixteen years since the Second City Trilogy had its world premiere in March 2005. I'm grateful to everyone who shared this life reaffirming experience with me –  every bump, every pothole, every twist we met along the way. It's been a long road home, but what a magical journey.

Made in Cork | Play It By Ear Rehearsed Readings will be available from Monday, March 1, to Weds, March 31. Tickets: €18 to access the full compilation for the month of March. www.everymancork.com

Made in Cork | Play It By Ear: Rehearsed Readings

• Marion stars Laura O’Mahony of Cork Comedy troupe Ccahoots fame.
• The voices of the four faces of Shandon Steeple come alive with a commentary on the city’s inhabitants in The Four Faced Liar, written by Ger Fitzgibbon.
• Lex Talionis (A Tale of Vengeance & Feathers) by Liam Heylin, is a play about savage craic on the streets of Cork. 
• Two Lord Mayors, by James McKeon and Patrick Talbot, was inspired by the extraordinary events in the city in 1920 and the two men at the centre of those events, Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney.  
• The Misfit Mythology by Irene Kelleher, tells the story of a dark secret in a small Irish town.
• The Herd by John McCarthy, is a big-hearted ode to family and relationships — and death and butchery.