Some plays can have you on the edge of your seat wondering what could possibly happen next, and others will have you more entranced by the everyday struggles of the very ordinary people in the world than you thought possible. Bill Mastrosimone’s The Woolgather by Blue Moon Theatre Company falls into the latter, with two captivating performances and an insight into the ability for hope to survive in the most unlikely of situations.
The Woolgather doesn’t have much in terms of storyline – it’s a straightforward boy meets girl, girl turns out to be a bit neurotic (a bit?!) and what do you know, so does the guy. How will they get on?
A lyrical play with some really beautiful lines combined with two very impressive actors (Sinéad O’Riordan and Michael Hough); The Woolgather is a captivating play that draws you in to a small, dingy apartment where you think nothing of any great interest could happen, opens up the troubles of the world to you and reveals the beauty in the struggles of life’s ordinary people.
Without the strong performances and really great accents by both actors; The Woolgather would not have been as captivating or as realistic as it turned out to be.
If you’re looking for something to draw you in and get you thinking I’d recommend this play – along with the opportunity to witness two extremely impressive performances.
Plays until April 13, 7.30pm at the New Theatre. Click here for more details. Images copyright of Anita Kulon.
First off, Two Gallants’ program for the show is one of the best programs I’ve seen … and it was free! It’s really well designer and when you open it out there’s a funky timeline detailing all the events surrounding his death and some infographic type pics telling you more about Marlowe and the London he lived in.
On the surface this is a story of class divide, but delving deeper the difference between the two women is the key decisions they have made throughout their life – one choosing the self loath and by default loath others around her, and another choosing to fight for her children and stay ever-the-optimist even during her darkest times.
There’s an awful lot of s*&t said on Twitter such as ‘I just ate a ham sandwich with mustard, it’s been a revolution for my taste buds’ but for once, the Twitter people were worth listening to. A punchy, lyrical exercise in storytelling; The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle is full of gleeful giddiness as well as a dash of quiet heartbreak that exists in the life of an ordinary man.
Yes, he did follow on from Joyce which was an enormous struggle in itself for any writer not least one who shared the same alma mater and stomping ground with the writer of the world-famous blue books of Eccles, and while I’m not entirely convinced O’Brien did enough to stay away from Joyce, he did carve through a style and niche of his own.
I’m not the type to support this opinion, yet I wouldn’t describe myself as feminist. In general my opinion on the sex industry would be to each his own; yet No Tear’s Bound suggests that perhaps we should look at the prostitution industry a little closer and turn around the finger of blame.
