'Dublin by Lamplight' is a mischievous play about a would-be national theatre, set in 1904. Rosita Boland watched 11th-hour rehearsals
Mark O'Halloran is on his knees before another man, giving an extremely good performance of simulating a blow job. He is kneeling on the floor of the clubhouse in the Leinster Cricket Club in Rathmines, not a venue one would normally associate with such forward behaviour. Furthermore, he has an appreciative audience, all of whom are creased up by his actions.
What else could it be except art? Corn Exchange Theatre Company is using the Leinster Cricket Club to rehearse its new show, Dublin by Lamplight. Rehearsal space in town is scarce, hence the actors are in this unlikely, but lovely, location: a big first-floor room with a wall of windows that overlooks the cricket green and the Dublin Mountains.
Written by Michael West in collaboration with the company, with original music by Conor Linehan, Dublin by Lamplight is still a work-in-progress, a week before it previews. Rehearsal time is tight, and the script keeps changing daily - in fact, hourly - but this appears not to faze the actors at all.
"It's just a matter of kicking one memory out of your head and saying hello to another," says Louis Lovett matter-of-factly between scenes.
Dublin by Lamplight is quite specifically set in 1904. Given the year that's in it, does that date ring any bells? Centenaries? Bloomsday? Foundation of a national theatre?
"Our play is about totally fictitious events," explains director Annie Ryan. "It's a day that the king is coming to Dublin, and that never happened." All the action takes place in a single day. The fictional Thomond Players are scheduled to première Willy Hayes's epic, The Wooing of Emer, and thus launch the Irish National Theatre. However, events do not run smoothly.
Observant people might note the playwright's Christian name, and the near-similar letters used in the surname to a man forever connected with Ireland's national theatre, W.B. Yeats. Also, the pastiche-like title from the Cúchulain cycle of stories of the Thomond Players's play within a play.
You can't see a new play about a would-be national theatre, set in 1904, and not meditate on the luckless year experienced by the Abbey. Especially when there are several mischievous references to that establishment's recent travails: such as the remark that one character, Willy Hayes, makes to Martyn Wallace: "We must convene an Extraordinary General Meeting."
"It's definitely playing with the Abbey thing," Ryan admits. "It's a centenary celebration of what didn't happen. We're looking at the interaction between nationalistic rhetoric and the arts. And how things keep going wrong," says West.
Dublin by Lamplight is being performed in the technically demanding Commedia dell'Arte style: a style used to great effect by Corn Exchange in their production of Lolita, which showed at the Peacock in 2002.
Commedia dell'Arte is very stylised: the actors, for instance, don't look at each other when speaking, but look out to the audience. Ryan describes the method as "taking the guts of your character and connecting with the guts of your audience".
"It's like a bunsen burner under the script," says West.
In this production, the performers also comment at length on their own actions, in a narrative style. "It makes it visceral. We're trying to take what's going on inside the character and explode it. A whole ensemble can become one character in a moment using this method," explains Ryan.
BETWEEN THEM, THE six actors - Mark O'Halloran, Louis Lovett, Janet Moran, Karen Egan, Mike Carbery and Fergal McElherron - play 30 roles, all of which involve costume changes. This is demanding for an actor, but even more so when considering the need to retain the mask-like make-up while constantly changing costumes under time pressure. There will be only one person to help them, so essentially, they are each responsible for their own multiple costume changes.
The dimensions of a stage are taped out on the floor of the cricket club bar, and the actors are working through the script. When they need to switch their entrances from stage left to right and vice versa, they scamper out the doors marked "Toilets" that lead to a connecting corridor, and rush in the other side. "Run faster," Ryan urges, when they miss their cues. Lovett has come prepared and is actually wearing a pair of running shorts.
It's officially the last day of straight rehearsals: the last week is earmarked for technical run-though, supposedly at a point when the script is completed and all actors are off book. But since the script keeps changing, this isn't possible.
"Line," says Egan, looking for a prompt. "Line," says O'Halloran, a few minutes later. One by one, so do all the actors, several times. But even with the stop-start method of rehearsing a devised piece of work, and without costume and make-up, Dublin by Lamplight still reveals itself. The story of melodrama, thwarted love, ambition, intrigue, nationalism and art is often howlingly funny.
Willy Hayes (Lovett) and Martyn Wallace (O'Halloran) run through a brand-new scene, line by line. They are sitting slumped against each other, down and out on the street, knocking back drinks, and discussing a death. It is hardly the freshest or most promising of material, but Ryan directs it in such a way that everyone is virtually on the floor with laughter, including the two actors.
Worried that the scene will lose the necessary dimensions of gravitas, Ryan makes suggestions, the actors make suggestions, and the piece runs again, at a different pace. This time, it works, and the scene remains very funny, but also becomes very subtle.
CORN EXCHANGE FIRST started working on this piece a year ago. "We wanted to do a devised piece set in that period. It's the era of silent movies. The feeling we want from the play is like a silent movie - with talking," says West.
They had four weeks of workshops earlier in the year, with most of the present cast. "It's difficult for actors to commit their time so far in advance," admits West. After the initial workshops, West went away and rewrote. They will have had four weeks of rehearsal when the show goes up.
Conor Linehan is composing the music for the show. On the hoof, so to speak. He has been sitting in on these last few weeks of rehearsals, watching, and trying things out to match the action. So not only do the actors have to focus on staying in the Commedia dell'Arte style, and learning new lines every day, they have to concentrate on their performance while accompanied by ever-developing pieces of music.
"I'm trying to mirror what's happening in the play," explains Linehan. Because everything keeps changing, he is composing in the rehearsal room. "There's room for latitude in a show like this - I'll probably play the music slightly differently every night," he says cheerfully.
Dublin by Lamplight previews at the Project Upstairs, Dublin, tonight and runs from November 1st to 20th