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KEITH DUFFY, YASMINE Akram, Peter Coonan and Caroline Morahan are all known for their entertainment and acting chops. But can they help produce and present six short plays in 24 hours for the Abbey stage?
They’re among a large cast (including Sarah Greene, Reeve Carney and Jonny Beauchamp), who will perform in The 24 Hour Plays at the Abbey Theatre tonight.
The writers include John Butler (The Stag), Róise Goan (Ros na Rún) and Michelle Read, while the directors are Oonagh Murphy, Dan Colley and Gerry Stembridge.
This is the fourth 24 Hour Plays in Ireland, and all the money raised goes to Dublin Youth Theatre – it has raised €25,500 for DYT over the past four years.
So, how does it work? Well, six short plays will be written, rehearsed and presented all within 24 hours by the voluntary team (who are helped by over 20 theatre technicians, as well as producers from The 24 Hour Company in New York).
The show is now sold out. The 24 Hour Plays originated in New York in the mid-90s and was brought to Ireland by producers Philly McMahon and Eva Scanlan in February 2012.
Unusual and difficult situations
Scanlan tells TheJournal.ie that as “a nerd for logistics and making things happen in unusual and often difficult situations”, she relishes the challenge of the “mayhem” of pulling the 24 Hour Plays together.
Although it’s a 24-hour long production for the cast and crew, the two producers work on the concept for six months of the year.
It’s finding the right mix of actors and directors across ages and experiences. We have some new actors and experienced people in the cast.
While the backstage crew were “terrified” at first, by its second year they were “comfortable – they feel a little less scared”, says Scanlan.
“You don’t have the luxury of time to dwell on little decisions. You say yes and make it happen, or say ‘give me 10 minutes’ to come up with answer and hope they forget,” she laughs. “We advise that it’s advisable not to promise anybody anything in the room. I’m very much a believer in if someone really, really wants to do something they will try to make it happen by hook or by crook.”
Just as time is tight, so is the budget. Each show gets €20 for things like extra props and costumes. It’s about “thinking on the spot and improvisation”.
How it all works
The clock starts on the Saturday night with a meet and greet. The actors present themselves in turn with a prop and a costume, and tell the team what their special skill is.
The props and costumes are gathered, and the playwrights get thinking. “We ask them to come with no preconceived notions and ideas,” says Scanlan. They have from 11am to about 6am to write the plays, which are 10 – 12 minutes each.
Rehearsal goes from 9am to 6pm, and then the Abbey curtain goes up at 7.30pm. This year, the musical guest is Jerry Fish.
“It’s blink and miss it,” says Scanlan. The show isn’t recorded or filmed. It all just happens right then and there.
“We do get quite a theatre crowd, but as well people who might not have been theatre ever who would come for the more famous TV names that they might only know as TV actors,” says Scanlan of the audience. “It’s always exciting to bring people into a theatre who haven’t been.”
“It’s fun live – it’s terrifying and absolutely anything can go wrong,” adds the producer. She won’t name names, but says that “when actors corpse [break character or laugh etc] on stage is pretty much my favourite thing in the world”.
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Was 15C when I was heading to work at 3am this morning… mild is putting it lightly!
@Kieran Menon: Putting it mildly. :-)
Met some Ukrainians in Poland a few weeks ago and they really need a mild winter. Elderly grandparents minding their toddlers and only on hour electricity per day.
@thomas molloy: Ah Goodman pretending you care. Tell me how many hours a day of electricity do the Palestinian people have per day? Do they not need a mild winter as well?
@Kevvy kerrr: Trump will do nothing. He’s already proven a bluffer. He said he’d end it once elected. What has the done?
The slaughter in Ukraine and Gaza will continue. Anyone who believes otherwise is delusional.
@Kevvy kerrr: Russia needs to remove its forces from Ukrainian territory, it’s nothing more than thievery and a land grab by Putin. I see the North Koreans fighting in Kursk ain’t fairing too well either.
@Ger Whelan: You pretend to care yourself. You only wave Palestinians around to avoid addressing a fair point. You’ve never mentioned the Congolese, Sudanese, Yemenese, Syrian, or Kurdish people as part of your own policy of mindless whataboutery and contrarianism. These are the people who’ve been forgotten by the world. Hundreds of thousands dead, dying, starving, and exiled around the world. There’s no easy sloganeering, Internet clout, or Jews involved, though. I’m sure the Palestinians appreciate you using them a mudflap to deflect for the results of Putins’ invasion.
@honey badger: I imagine that Ger, being a decent person, will condemn any and all genocides and war crimes, as I do and you, very notably, don’t.
One of the main differences between the Israeli barbarism and that in the Congo etc. is that nobody comes on here and defends the Congolese perpetrators, like you do with the Israeli government and IDF.
An Israeli view: ‘decades of dispossession and oppression of Palestinians, a policy to maintain Jewish supremacy between the river and the sea, entire Palestinian communities wiped out, gradual ethnic cleansing, tens of thousands killed, blanket impunity, apartheid – all these are hard facts, backed by repeated reports of journalists, diplomats, UN experts and human rights organisations.’
@honey badger: Ah look at our residents Zonest Shrill. Funny how you don’t have any issue with Thomas ignoring all the other conflicts you mentioned in your comment. Why is it ok for him to just mention Ukraine and ignore the rest but you get butt hurt when I mention the Palestinians? Also where have I “deflected” from Putin’s invasion? It’s a brutal invasion that must stop. Just like Israel’s brutal invasion of Gaza must stop, something you’re not interested in.
@Ger Whelan: ***Zionist shrill *** FU you auto correct
@Brendan O’Brien: Thank you for so eloquently illustrating my point. It’s genuinely appreciated. Smh.
@Ger Whelan: Thomas didn’t mention them because he was discussing Ukraine. You are a simple contrarian, I don’t expect you to understand the difference but would hope you’d reflect on how your own kneejerk whataboutism to Palestine isn’t a valid reply to Putins invasion and it’s consequences for ordinary Ukrainians.
@honey badger: You don’t have a point. All you have is a perverse indifference, at best, to genocide when the ethnic group that’s suffering is not to your liking.
@honey badger: @Brendan O’Brien: @ Ger Whelan well tonight that god it’s them instead of you….. to paraphrase my long departed old man, there’ll be no whataboutery in this house! Merry Christmas all
@honey badger: Thomas had no reason to mention Ukraine at all though he had? Funny how it’s ok with people like you to make every article about Ukraine and then get butt hurt when Gaza is also mentioned. There is no whatabtouism about Gaza it’s been brutally invaded just like Ukraine is. But you support the invasion of Gaza. You can mention Putin all you like I’ve no support for him. If there was any justice I’m the world he’d be sharing a Prison cell with Netenyahu. Wouldn’t you agree both should answer for their illegal invasions and war crimes?
@Kevin Kerr: ol’ granny used say …”everyone’s an expert on the barstool at closing time”. Luckily weather is so mild over the festive season…..I have a half dozen ( very reluctant) enlisted participants for the Christmas morning sea swim tomorrow morning. Same to you, HAPPY CHRISTMAS everyone
@thomas molloy: The left are very selective about whom they bestow their empathy and compassion!
@Brendan O’Brien: Again, your own determination to laminate my words with your own hysterical misinterpretation is your own business. You do, however, continue to prove my original point. Thank you.
@Brendan O’Brien: Citing that left-wing bigoted rag again!
@honey badger: You don’t appear to know what ‘hysterical’ means. You want to have your cake and eat it by consistently defending the perpetrators of genocide while being irked when you’re criticised for this. It won’t wash.
Do you have any comment on the quote from Hagai El-Ad that I give above? No, of course you don’t.
@Brian Hunt: And the right spread their h@te equally.
@thomas molloy: Jesus I didnt know the brain could come up with such real life events all from sniffing glue too much
@thomas molloy: total bs . Most of the country is unaffected business as usual. Many Ukrainians here are working remotely from jobs in Ukraine while driving around uninsured with free accommodation and welfare. Total joke
Thats great thank god no snow
Fine by me. Not lighting the fire each day is great news…. (yeah thats right,… I like a fire on cold nights… stuff you green party).
First week in January snow and wind expected, Ventrysky.com has the forcast. Happy Christmas Everyone.
We can all dream of a white Christmas like Mr Bing Crosbie
Plenty of snow here in Bulgaria great skiing weather
@barry williams: Bully for you!
@Brian Hunt: Bulgaria? Toilet
A fierce mild Christmas.
So there has to be someone or some group complaining about this mild Christmas weather? It’s Ireland after all.
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