Written by Billy Roche
Directed by Johnny Hanrahan
Performed by Gary Lydon
I'd remove my foot from the water only to discover that it was whole again. And then I'd
submerge my face and the same thing would happen... the fellow I'd become would be
tall and fair and broad of shoulders and clean and good and kind.
Set in a salty corner of Wexford town, 'where the sea holds sway,' One Is Not A Number
is a haunting, romantic, savage tale of life-long loneliness and longing as Matty Larkin,
the club-footed outcast, learns to adore Imelda - the girl with the 'secretive smile' - from
afar. Celebrating love in all its complexities One Is Not A Number has all the trademark
qualities of Billy Roche at his best as it coaxes epic drama out of mundane encounters
with the melancholy beauty and wit of The Cavalcaders and The Wexford Trilogy.
Performed by Gary Lydon (The Clinic, Pure Mule, Small Engine Repair, Six Shooter), who
has been performing Billy's work for over twenty years, this lyrical monologue, based on
the short story by Billy Roche (from Tales From Rainwater Pond) tells the story of Matty
Larkin as he moves from boy to man- a life of unrequited love- only to finally realise that,
'she's the one who makes you walk the Via Dolorosa, she's the one who sends you to
the water's edge to look at yourself at if for the very first time...'
One Is Not A Number will premiere at Wexford Arts Centre in October 2009, and will
run in Cork for two weeks before embarking on a national tour. For information on
booking this show, contact Julie at info@meridiantheatre.com.
The Lost Field
Raccoon and The Exit Wound
Meridian's touring double bill combines two one-act plays dealing with families sundered and reunited
in bizarre circumstances. Raccoon tells the story of Saoirse who is offered the chance to reconstruct
her past and her future as a result of a chance encounter in the café where she works. The
Exit Wound creates an intense ritual of return for an errant trad singer/storyteller who has been on
the run from his wife and children for over forty years.
We envisage these two plays as part of an evening, which would potentially, but not necessarily,
involve a dinner between them. Raccoon is suitable for and often performed in cafes and bars. The
Exit Wound is performed at a 30ft long table at which the audience (50 approx) sits. In our
experience, many venues have been interested in having the dinner at the table though in some
cases where a bigger audience of 80 to 100 is required the dinner is dispensed with or held
elsewhere and a second raised row of benches put in behind those at the table. For further
information on booking this unique experience, email carmel@meridiantheatre.com.
Raccoon
Written by Tom Hall
Directed by Johnny Hanrahan
Featuring Julie Sharkey
"An intimate, perfectly pitched performance, spiced with whimsy and banter." Evening Herald.
When I went to him he asked for his tea in a brown voice like dust in the road.
Grey and quiet he was, gazing at his plate from under heavy brows, with his eyes far apart. So were
his hands, the way he ate. You could see he was a farmer again, the way he crowded his food,
hedged it with his hands, like it was livestock or something, patiently.
I said something to him. I'm so stupid. Oh why did I?
Raccoon is a poignant, lyrical tale of small town Irish life. Centring on Saoirse (Julie Sharkey), a
waitress in a small café, it explores the great contemporary Irish themes of children laid aside but
held in the heart as a lifelong yearning, of parents named and unnamed, lost and found. Saoirse
doesn't know who she is or where she comes from but by a bizarre chance encounter in her café she
is offered the opportunity to reconstruct her past and her future.
He comes out with this, soft-like, "Why don't you wear your hair in a chignon?"
You should have heard the way he pronounced it, I'm telling you - "chignon". Who taught it to him, I
wondered.
"Are you a beautician?" I says.
The Exit Wound
Written and directed by Johnny Hanrahan
Featuring Rosie O'Regan and Michael Loughnan
"A rich fusion of imagery and metaphor, beautifully rendered" The Irish Times
Hugh (Michael Loughnan) is an itinerant singer/storyteller, a relic of Greenwich Village, the
Folk Revival and the sixties generally, who left Ireland, and his family, on the day of John F.
Kennedy's assassination and has returned finally, the prodigal father, after more than forty
years. During all that time he has ruled his family in absentia, a king across the water
dispensing instructions, money, advice and a series of broken promises to his wife and
children. The action of The Exit Wound is a confrontation between Hugh and his
granddaughter Julia (Rosie O'Regan) who is the only one strong enough to resist the myth
and see the man.
Those words were a kind of cruelty. A kind of sweet cruelty. For when you said plough, pasture or
re'claim it was as if you were picking the lock on their suffering, as if you were drawing back the bolts
on the great door of forgetfulness that they'd erected to fortify their storehouse of pain. To keep their
misery in bounds...
Consisting of two short plays linked by a unifying theme - the fragility of family ties - Meridian
theatre company's touring double bill also displays an experimental approach to performance space.
The first piece, Raccoon by Tom Hall, consists of a monologue by Saoirse (Julie Sharkey), a waitress
who uncovers the hazy truth about her orphaned background after a meeting with an elderly farmer:
by turns funny and bittersweet, it boasts a winning turn by Sharkey.
The second drama, The Exit Wound by Johnny Hanrahan (who directs both pieces), focuses on a
rakish singer (Michael Loughnan), back America after years of exile... [who is] questioned by his
granddaughter (Rosie O'Regan) to unearth uncomfortable home truths. Performed at a long table at
which the audience also sits, the elegiac atmosphere... offer[s] an enjoyably skewed vision of Irish
family secrets.
The Lost Field: Review from The Irish World
By Katrina Riozzi
21 October 2007, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
As part of the Liverpool Irish Festival, we have the Meridian Theatre Company's unique production
comprising two plays, and the running theme of families thrown together in strange circumstances,
led on a journey of discovery.
In the first play, Raccoon (by Tom Hall) we meet Saoirse, our waitress for the evening. Saoirse relies
on nobody, does not expect honesty or loyalty. She seems to have given up asking questions, and
instead gets on with wiping tables and pouring coffee.
Until, that is, a chance meeting at work with an oddly familiar stranger provides Saoirse with the
chance she had just about given up on - of re-constructing her past, discovering her identity and
envisaging her future. Julie Sharkey's Saoirse is enthralling, explosive and held us captivated
throughout her hour long solo performance.
The Exit Wound, by Johnny Hanrahan, follows a meal served in the restaurant space that doubles as
the auditorium within which the play is enacted, as dinner finishes we find ourselves eavesdropping
on the characters Hugh and Julia, sat at either end of the long dining table we are all arranged at. As
their strained and awkward conversation begins, a glaze of anger and disgust is clearly seen
glimmering in Julia's eye's, her presence is almost intimidating at first, yet as the conversation
continues, we see a vulnerability and a deep sadness that eventually pours out.
Hugh seems to have grown tired of running and hiding. He has made many mistakes, but kept his
battles hidden and stayed in the shadows. Now here he is, flesh and bone, and Julia is faced with the
reality of the man. Michael Loughnan and Rosie O'Regan both deliver stunningly moving
performances.
BLOOD+BANDAGE is a new festival designed to support and foster new plays and new forms of
theatre emerging in Cork. Based in the Granary Theatre, the first annual festival in 2008 featured
work by Meridian, Granary Theatre and Be Your Own Banana and showcased three Cork pieces
developed in the city in the past two years.
BLOOD+BANDAGE workshops are running throughout 2009. These workshops provide the
opportunity for exploratory creative sessions over several days for artists anxious to experiment with
new plays or new performance styles or with new technical resources. To date, workshops have
focused, for example, on a new play by Jody O'Neill, a puppet-based piece by Medb Lambert and
Donal Gallagher, a video installation by Cormac O'Connor, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and several
other new plays.
Raccoon
The Exit Wound
