Humour and death in McGowan Trilogy

June 5th, 6:00am June 9th, 9:08am

Our Reporter

Arts

The McGowan Trilogy by local playwright and short-story writer Seamus Scanlon will receive its Irish premiere at the city’s An Taibhdhearc Theatre this Friday and Saturday, June 5and 6.

Directed by Adrian Lavelle, The McGowan Trilogy follows the exploits of an IRA zealot Victor McGowan over a two-year period in 1980s Ireland. The trilogy comprises three interwoven one-act plays – Dancing at Lunacy, The Long Wet Grass and Boys Swam Before Me.

This trilogy received its world premiere in New York last September when it was staged as part of the first Irish Theater Festival, in a production from The Cell Theater. That production won three awards (Best Actress, Best Director and Best Design).

Here in Ireland The McGowan Trilogy being staged by fledgling Galway company Wolf Meets World in association with Kino-Teatr from the UK.

Seamus, who works as a librarian at the City College of New York Center for Worker Education, is home in Galway for the event.

The science graduate from NUIG, who also qualified as a librarian while in Cambridge, was always an avid reader, but he didn’t begin writing until he was an adult – a period working in Belfast was the catalyst.

From Mervue in the city, Seamus has previously published a collection of short stories, As Close As You’ll Ever Be, which are in the crime fiction genre.

He’s a regular visitor to Galway these days, but his base is New York and he loves the college where he works. It was set up by the Teamster Union so that its members could avail of further education. Students attend at weekends and in the evening and many of them are the first generation of their families to go to university. That’s similar to Seamus’s background, as his parents couldn’t afford to go to college.

But it was they who first nurtured his love of reading and writing, as did Donal Taheny, his teacher at St Joseph’s (The Bish).

The latest result of that life-long love affair can be seen at An Taibhdhearc this weekend, in a world where dark comedy meets tragedy and pathos.

Audiences are asked to note The  McGowan Trilogy has strong language, violence and poetic licence, “not to mention song lyrics gone awry”, according to its author.

■ It’s on at 8pm this Friday and Saturday, with a matinee at 2pm on Saturday. Tickets €15/€12 To book tickets go to www.antaibhdhearc.com or call the box office on 091 563600.