Question of Taste: Cork actor Mark O'Regan
Mark O'Regan, Cork actor.
Mark O’Regan was born in London but reared and educated in Cork city. He’s currently working on a stage production of Mary Lavin’s short story masterpiece, In the Middle of the Fields, first published in 1967. In July, he will be performing the show at the West Cork Fit-Up Festival in Ballydehob, Richmond Barracks in Dublin, and in Bective in Co Meath.
Fassbinder, Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman, a quirky biography and critical analysis of the German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Penman has been obsessed with the director and his films since the early eighties. Fassbinder was a chaotic genius who made over 40 films in his short life. Penman captures the madness of this enfant terrible and catalyst of the new German Cinema Movement.
Close, a Belgian film directed by Lukas Dhont and an Oscar nominee this year in the Foreign Film category. It tells the story of two 13year old boys, whose intense friendship is abruptly torn apart with tragic consequences for both their families.
Agreement by Owen McCafferty at the Lyric Theatre Belfast. Twenty-five years on from the historic Good Friday/Belfast Agreement this play focuses on the four days of intense negotiation leading up to the big announcement. All the main protagonists are there, including Trimble, Adams, Ahern, Blair and Mo Mowlam, in a tangle of historical and intractable positions. Outstanding performances in a riveting political drama.
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2. I went to see Oona Doherty’s dance piece Navy Blue recently at the Abbey and she used the Rachmaninoff piano concerto as a soundtrack in the first part of the program, to brilliant effect. Watching 12 dancers moving in unison to the emotional power of this enduringly popular piece was exhilarating.
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching towards the Somme, by Frank McGuiness. In the mid-Eighties the Abbey theatre toured to the Everyman Cork with Observe the Sons and a cast that included Ray McAnally, Ian McElhinney and Oliver Maguire. It had a profound effect on me at the time and I was delighted to play the part of William Moore, ten years later in the first Abbey revival.
So difficult to pick one show but I suppose if I had to, I would choose the production of Theatre de Complicite’s, The Street of Crocodiles at the Dublin Theatre Festival, 30 years ago. Fantastic, surreal, endlessly inventive and original.
I listened to a lot of podcasts during lockdown – Grounded with Louis Theroux, This American Life, S Town, to name but a few. I’ve got out of the habit in the last year unless I get a serious recommendation. I like Vincent Woods’s County Measure on Radio 1, Off the Ball on Newstalk,and Jim White and Simon Jordan on TalkSport.
I played Vladimir in a production of Waiting for Godot 40 years ago when I was a student at UCC in a cast that included Graham Norton, Dan Mullane and Donncha Crowley. Now that we are the right age to play those roles it would be lovely to get back together again.
Last year I had the good fortune to meet and work with Liam Neeson on an IRA drama set in the 1970s. Liam plays a retired enforcer who has to reckon with his troubled past. The character I play has a significant encounter with him at the edge of a forest, near Glencolmcille. The film, titled The Land of Saints and Sinners is due for release on Netflix, this autumn.
Last year I read Chris Frantz’s memoir of his years as the drummer with Talking Heads, one of my favourite groups of all time. They built their audience and reputation in a music club in Manhattan’s East Village called CBGB’s. In the mid ’70s you might see The Ramones, Blondie and Patti Smith at the beginning of their careers. Beam me back for 24 hours!
