Getting Gigli with it

CAVAN woman Derbhle Crotty (below) is no stranger to Clare. She loves the streets of Ennis and the history of The Old Ground hotel but most of all she loves to perform here. The actress takes to the Glór stage next week as Mona in Tom Murphy’s The Gigli Concert, directed by Garry Hynes.
“It is not an understatement to say The Gigli Concert is one of the great plays of the 20th century and certainly one of the great Irish plays. There is eating and drinking in it. Every time I am backstage and I hear it, new layers are revealed to me. It touches me in different ways every night. I have seen two productions of it and I am very happy and privileged to be in this production. It has everything. It has great soul. It is operatic in its scale and it speaks very particularly to every individual that sees it. It is not aloof; it is extraordinarily pertinent to our times. It poses the question that maybe all great art poses, it asks what are we doing here and it doesn’t really seek to give you answers,” she said.
“There is a quote from Tennessee Williams, ‘Make voyages! Attempt them… there’s nothing else’ and I think this is particularly relevant to this play. Almost every exchange shouldn’t happen. These two men shouldn’t be in the same room together but yet they are on this extraordinary metaphysical journey and they can’t do it without each other. Everything is in there. The pain of being human… the pleasure, the delight of it and the joy of it and that is only possible through a connection with others and a connection with the ideas of others,” Derbhle continued.
The play was first performed in 1983 in Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. Revolving around the relationship between a despairing property magnate and an English self-help therapist.
Its story and its themes could hardly be more pertinent today.
“People have asked us if Tom has done any rewrites to bring it up to date because some of the references are so relevant. The property developer finds himself in an extraordinary wasteland and the signposts or the guidance that we need to make life bearable in times of crisis aren’t there. His achievements and his wealth are no comfort to him and how could they be? The Irish man is an extraordinary construct. He is enormously driven and ultimately unfulfilled. This encounter will give him solace but he will find himself in crisis again,” Derbhle explained. 
The actress points out that her own character is “profoundly engaged in a life-and-death struggle but hers is primal. She is very much here and of this world. Her preoccupation is how to make that better, how to better the world. She is about nurturing and creating. She is a creative force. She doesn’t want to analyse, she doesn’t need to know the meaning of things. She is a wonderful counterweigh to the men. She is practical. She is immensely practical. There are three characters in crisis, but her solution is not abstract.”
As well as enjoying her role, Derbhle also has great respect for her colleagues.
“When you are dealing with Tom as a writer, there is gold on every page,” she said. “Garry never lets the human out of her sight. They are real human beings on the stage and you laugh a lot in the rehearsal room and she creates a great creative space.”
Druid presents The Gigli Concert in Glór, Ennis from December 16 to 19.