Break the farce

10/03/2010 11:38:00 a.m.

The Walworth Farce: Raymond Scannell as Blake, Michael Glenn Murphy as Dinny, and Tadhg Murphy as Sean. Photo: Robert Day.

THE Walworth Farce looks creepy.
A father makes his two sons put on moustaches, wigs and ill fitting suits and do a farce. Since they were kids they have done this every day all the while cooped up in a rundown council flat in London.
“That to me is a strange sort of torture,” says Irishman and Walworth playwright Enda Walsh, in a previous interview. “My intention was to make a part that was impossible for an actor... and bring them to a point of despair.”
Actor Ray Scannell plays one of the brothers, Blake.
“It’s hard-hitting. People said to me [after seeing it] are you alright, we saw you were crying,” says Scannell.
“It would have been impossible for me [to perform] but I worked with people who had done it before.”
Scannell saw the show in Cork, in 2006, and later auditioned for the part in London.
The Walworth Farce has been described as a dramatisation of what psychiatrists call “repetition compulsion” – where people endlessly re-enact the worst thing that’s happened to them. The day the audience watch the farce, the family’s routine is interrupted with disastrous consequences.
Scannell says there has been criticism about the level of violence in the play, and there are moments where people are afraid to laugh.
“Everyone has a certain routine that gives them a sense of something,” says Scannell. “You might have certain habits at your desk, or a specific way you have your coffee, or a place you always have lunch. “When the [Walworth Farce] routine is interrupted I start acting out in very dangerous ways.”
The only time Scannell laughs during the interview is when asked if he would ever kill someone if his real life routine were interrupted (after all, the programme reveals that five people die in The Walworth Farce). In short, “No”.
Ultimately, “a lot of the play is about how families present themselves compared with what actually goes on” and how we define ourselves by the stories we tell about ourselves.
The Walworth Farce, Opera House, 7.30pm, March 17-19, 21; 2pm & 7.30pm, March 20.

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Cover Story

Best of Wellington 2011

Fringe Festival

Briefs

Plane direction
A new training academy will open in June to help fill a shortage of qualified air traffic controllers in the Middle East and Asia. Global-ATS, a privately owned UK-based academy, will operate from the Wellington School of Business and Government campus. The academy will open with three staff, up to 10 air traffic control students and 70 associated safety management course participants.
Here comes the sun
WELLINGTON city council is one of several New Zealand councils signing up for Solar Promise, a campaign launched last July by the Nelson Environment Centre. The scheme aims to take away barriers to using solar energy and make the technology more affordable. City Council is working with the Regional Council to develop a targeted rate for solar hot water systems, as well as setting up an online map to indicate levels of solar radiation across the city.
Parsons stays put
JULIAN Parsons says his bookstore Parsons Books and Music isn’t going anywhere, despite news that brother Roger’s Auckland Parsons store is closing its doors. Parsons opened in 1958 on Lambton Quay and is still on the same site today.
Bikes allowed
Bikes will soon be allowed on trains on the Johnsonville line at all times following a review by the Greater Wellington Regional Council. Councillor Daran Ponter says that the introduction of the new Matangi units on the line, scheduled for mid-March 2012, means that there will be greater capacity than currently provided by the English Electric units.
Carter clean and green
TEAM members at Carter Observatory have been recognised as keen greenies. Carter has won a Qualmark Enviro-Bronze Award for high standards in environmental practices including energy efficiency, waste management and water conservation. More than 700 businesses carry the Enviro Award mark.
Bowling for a market
MORE than 25 stalls will be waiting behind the fence at the 100 year old Hataitai Bowling Club at the suburb’s Community Market on Saturday. The stalls include sweet treats, produce, books and vintage clothing. The market runs the first Saturday of each month.
Hataitai Community Market, Bowling Club, 9am-1pm, February 4.
Iconic tour
THE second largest wooden building in the world graces Lambton Quay near the Cenotaph and it’s now open on Saturdays for free tours. The colonial-style Government Building features a Kauri-clad interior and cast iron fireplaces.
Government Building Open Day tours, 11am and 2pm, Saturdays, until March 31.
Get arty
FOR those who would like to progress from finger-painting, artist Stephanie Woodman is running classes to teach drawing and painting in a range of styles and mediums. Sessions include acrylic painting techniques, glazing, watercolour and abstract, and there are special classes for teenagers and kids.
Stephanie Woodman art classes, Toi Poneke, Feb 7 – April 5.
Wheels are turning
WELLINGTON Regional Council’s Daran Ponter and Paul Bruce are to present the Bus Review, a proposal for a major shakeup of bus services in the city. It’s also a chance for the public to discuss their ideas and issues.
Bus Review, Crossways Community Centre, 7.30pm, February 7.
Violinist awarded
CONGRATULATIONS to violinist Minsi Yang, recently awarded The Elman Poole Music scholarship.
The scholarship is an annual award for up and coming New Zealand instrumentalists to train with the London orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia.
Yang gained her music degree from Victoria University, before heading to Auckland to study for her Masters degree.
Leap into song
LOCAL songwriters will this month participate in February Album Writing Month, an international songwriting event that usually challenges participants to write a song every two days for the whole month. But it’s a leap year this year, so songwriters have to write 14 and a half songs in 29 days, the ‘half song’ being a collaboration with another writer. At least 12 Wellington songwriters have signed up to take part. ‘Fawmers’ will post audio recordings of their songs on http://fawm.org
Coastal tunes
THE Tora Coast in the Wairarapa will this Waitangi weekend host a music festival celebrating good food and good sounds. TORA!TORA!TORA! features Imon Starr aka Olmecha the Relic, Jon McLeary and The Spines, Louis Baker, Vanessa Stacey and Conor McCabe. This is the third time the festival will take place.

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