Real-life married couple team up for 'Lovesong' at Cork Arts Theatre
Dylan Kennedy and Jenny Fennessy in 'Lovesong', returning to Cork Arts Theatre.
When married couple, actors Jenny Fennessy and Dylan Kennedy, first met at the rehearsals for a children’s play they were in, Fennessy admits she thought Kennedy was really arrogant. On the other hand, he felt she was really boring. That was in 2008 in Kilkenny, where the pair were working with Barnstorm Theatre Company. They toured the country with the show for 16 weeks.
Fennessy, who stars opposite Kennedy in which they’re bringing back to the Cork Arts Theatre following a production of it four years ago, says meeting Kennedy was not a case of love at first sight.
Not knowing Kennedy had a girlfriend in America who was due to come to Ireland, Fennessy says their first date was a night at bingo, a game that neither had ever played before. At the time, both actors were living part-time with their parents. Kennedy is from Glenville in Co Cork, while Fennessy is from Ballysaggart in West Waterford.
After weekends at home, Fennessy would give Kennedy lifts back to work. “We had great chats in the car. That’s really where it sparked,” says Kennedy. “We’d always stop in Ballyporeen for an ice-cream.”
Kennedy had to finish with his American girlfriend. “It wasn’t my brightest or nicest moment but it worked out for the best.”
When Kennedy was working in London, he and Fennessy (who was based in Waterford) had a long distance relationship. “Free phone calls from Vodafone, and Ryanair kept us going,” says Fennessy.
When she signed up for drama school at the Guildhall in London, she thought she’d see her boyfriend all the time. But Kennedy had to move to Scotland for about nine months working with the National Theatre there, so the long distance relationship continued. After Fennessy graduated, she got work with the Royal Shakespeare Company so the couple decamped to Stratford-upon-Avon where Kennedy was able to work remotely on a non-acting job, developing an app for tourists.
The couple later decided to move back to Ireland as Kennedy’s parents were ill (they’re both doing well now), and Fennessy is a home bird. Moving back was hard. “We had a good network of people in the UK who had seen our work and casting directors who knew us. To be honest, we set up our theatre company [Red ‘n Blue Theatre] in 2018 because when we came home, the phone wasn’t ringing,” says Fennessy.
They decided to find a play they loved and put it on. The couple read about two hundred plays before settling on by Welsh playwright Abi Morgan. They got €1,200 from Waterford Council to help stage the play and they got support from the Cork Arts Theatre thanks to a donation to the venue from a benefactor.
is the story of a couple, Maggie and Billy, told from two different points of view in their lives. Fennessy and Kennedy play the young lovers, while older actors Sean Ahern and Mary Flavin-Colbert step in for the later-years scenes as they look back on their relationship. Their past and present selves collide in this tale that puts a relationship under the microscope, not shying away from times of turbulence. It’s a story of love and loss.
How do Fennessy and Kennedy, who married in 2017, find working and living together? “We love working together. There is no escape. In the middle of the night, I often say something to Dylan about a moment in the play, not realising that he’s asleep. We’re living and breathing theatre every single day at the moment.”
Fortunately, while the couple has occasional artistic differences, they don’t have big rows about work. “We can have different opinions about the characters’ choices. But we talk it all out. We’re always thinking about what’s best for the play. While we have disagreements, we’ll come to a solution.”
Fennessy and Kennedy, who don’t have children, say they have different but complementary skill sets. “Dylan is amazing at directing and at movement," says Fennessy of her husband, who is directing the play as well as acting in it. Her strengths include good organisational skills and in the area of communications and promoting the work.
The company has not yet received Arts Council funding. Their future plans include producing later this year. (They staged at the Cork Opera House last year.) During fallow periods, Kennedy works as a physiotherapist while Fennessy does some substitute teaching.
“I think if I had stayed in London, I would have had more acting opportunities,” says Fennessy. But both she and Kennedy say they have a better quality of life in Ireland.
- is at Cork Arts Theatre from January 20-31: corkartstheatre.com
