An odd couple testing the limits of friendship
CORK theatrical stalwart, Michael Twomey, will take to the stage of the Everyman Palace Theatre playing one half of a legendary vaudevillian double act in Neil Simon’s comedy, The Sunshine Boys, on January 11. The fictional duo, Willie Clark (played by Twomey) and Al Lewis (David Coon), are retired but are persuaded to reunite for a TV special on the history of comedy. Unlike the comedy act, Cha and Miah, for which Twomey, along with Frank Duggan, is famous, Clark and Lewis have come to hate each other and didn’t even communicate with each other off stage in the final year of their act.
Simon is one of Twomey’s favourite playwrights and is also much loved by director, Pat Talbot. “I love Neil Simon’s humour with its Jewish idiom, which adds greatly to the fun,” says Twomey. “I would say that Neil Simon is one of the most popular of all the American playwrights. He wrote The Sunshine Boys in 1972. He’s best known for The Odd Couple. I’d argue that this play is even funnier than The Odd Couple.”
