Page 50 - The Gonzaga Record 2004
P. 50
S ixth Y ear P lay
A H a n d f u l o f S tars
b y B illy R o ch e
DIRECTED BY BRIAN REGAN
Drama has always had a central place in Jesuit education. This doesn’t mean the
mounting of a costly showcase production in which all the school’s talents get dis
played, but the exploration together, by actors and production crew, of the experi
ences of other human beings - intense relationships, conflict, the motives for
action - often in circumstances that differ hugely from their own. It is this type of
intense drama (at times very funny, of course) that Brian Regan, John Moriarty
(6C) and the team of actors presented very successfully in October.
In Billy Roche’s play, A Handful o f Stars, audience and cast revisit the world of
small-town Ireland in the late ‘fifties. Conformity rules: the steady job, the safe-if-
not-wildly-romantic marriage. Escape is possible only through short-lived success
in the boxing ring; entertainment is to be found only in the tatty glitz of the snook
er hall and its juke box. And in the local cinema, James Dean offers the confused
possibility of rebellion against the dullness of it all.
Not exactly, then, the Gonzaga world, and all the more reason to explore it and
seek to empathise. All the greater credit to director, cast and crew for recreating that
world and its characters.
Darragh O’Connell and his team led by stage manager Gerard Casey (6A) gave
us the shabby, inhospitable hopelessness of the snooker hall, with its area of
reserved, leather-seated privilege - no entry to the riff-raff there! Tony McCarthy
(6C) as Paddy, the manager of the hall, complemented the setting perfectly with
his understated, long-suffering misery.
Against this background the male characters play out their loves, each to a
greater or lesser degree dependent on the others: Swan, the self-important local
Inspector (Paul Murphy 6C) who massages his ego on the successful pursuit of
small criminals; Stapler, the small-time boxing hero and local role model (Jack
Laffan 6C); Conway (Conor Mulvagh 6C), successful keeper of the ‘greasy till’
who takes sanctimonious pleasure in the fall of those who don’t follow ‘the hard
road’ like himself; and Tony (Mark Taheny 6D), who is on the verge of stifling
passionate youth in a conventional and far too early marriage.
There is a world-weariness and cynicism in Roche’s older characters which we
can be glad members of Sixth Year were not quite able to capture. These roles were
played with great skill and sympathy, however, and the players had obviously learnt
enough from the exploration of character to make their roles distinct and identifi-
P age 48
A H a n d f u l o f S tars
b y B illy R o ch e
DIRECTED BY BRIAN REGAN
Drama has always had a central place in Jesuit education. This doesn’t mean the
mounting of a costly showcase production in which all the school’s talents get dis
played, but the exploration together, by actors and production crew, of the experi
ences of other human beings - intense relationships, conflict, the motives for
action - often in circumstances that differ hugely from their own. It is this type of
intense drama (at times very funny, of course) that Brian Regan, John Moriarty
(6C) and the team of actors presented very successfully in October.
In Billy Roche’s play, A Handful o f Stars, audience and cast revisit the world of
small-town Ireland in the late ‘fifties. Conformity rules: the steady job, the safe-if-
not-wildly-romantic marriage. Escape is possible only through short-lived success
in the boxing ring; entertainment is to be found only in the tatty glitz of the snook
er hall and its juke box. And in the local cinema, James Dean offers the confused
possibility of rebellion against the dullness of it all.
Not exactly, then, the Gonzaga world, and all the more reason to explore it and
seek to empathise. All the greater credit to director, cast and crew for recreating that
world and its characters.
Darragh O’Connell and his team led by stage manager Gerard Casey (6A) gave
us the shabby, inhospitable hopelessness of the snooker hall, with its area of
reserved, leather-seated privilege - no entry to the riff-raff there! Tony McCarthy
(6C) as Paddy, the manager of the hall, complemented the setting perfectly with
his understated, long-suffering misery.
Against this background the male characters play out their loves, each to a
greater or lesser degree dependent on the others: Swan, the self-important local
Inspector (Paul Murphy 6C) who massages his ego on the successful pursuit of
small criminals; Stapler, the small-time boxing hero and local role model (Jack
Laffan 6C); Conway (Conor Mulvagh 6C), successful keeper of the ‘greasy till’
who takes sanctimonious pleasure in the fall of those who don’t follow ‘the hard
road’ like himself; and Tony (Mark Taheny 6D), who is on the verge of stifling
passionate youth in a conventional and far too early marriage.
There is a world-weariness and cynicism in Roche’s older characters which we
can be glad members of Sixth Year were not quite able to capture. These roles were
played with great skill and sympathy, however, and the players had obviously learnt
enough from the exploration of character to make their roles distinct and identifi-
P age 48
