The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Local company grateful for support from community and organisations for three-night production.
CONFINED and restricted for so long, Muse Productions focused on what they could do rather than what they couldn’t, and gave an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on last Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings at the Town Park.
Attendance each night was capped at 100, and thankfully the weather was dry.
“It went really, really well. There was a great turnout, the weather held off for us, so yeah, we were blessed,” said Martin McNeilis, who played Oberon in the production, while his wife and three children also had roles in it.
“Obviously Covid regulations allow for 50 indoors and 100 outdoors, so we cordoned off a section of the park and we only allowed 100 people in.
“Some people passed by, or hung around, or stood by and watched a bit and moved on, but the audience was 100,” said Martin.
The play was stripped back and was done well inside two hours each time.
“We basically cut the play down, removed the interval and ran it as one piece for about an hour and 45 minutes or an hour and 50.
“There was a bit of a pre show there, we had Rick Germaine and his girlfriend Kate playing trad music for about half an hour beforehand, then two or three of the cast came out and played guitars as well, just to get the audience warmed up and to set the scene.”
Martin has a great fondness for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “ I think it’s the most accessible of the Shakespeare plays, it’s fun, it’s a comedy, there are so many great quotes out of it, like ‘Lord what fools these mortals be.’
“There’s so much in it, the physical comedy of the Mechanicals and the Lovers and the otherworldliness of the Fairies. It’s a wonderful piece.”
It was also an ideal choice for a drama group battling Covid restrictions.
“It had a huge advantage for us in terms of the structure of the play. There’s three main groups, there’s the Fairies, the Lovers and the Mechanicals.
“Each group is about six people so when we were rehearsing back in May we could have limited pods of six people outdoors, when that was allowed. We started it on Zoom, and when we were allowed to meet in pods of six in groups we did that, with the Mortals, the Mechanicals and the Fairies.
“In early May we were allowed to meet in groups of 15 for cultural events outdoors. We rehearsed in one of the member’s back gardens, she has a big back garden and a 40 foot deck.
“We knew the stage was going to be 40 foot as well, so we rehearsed there, all masked up. At this stage most of us are at least half vaccinated if not fully.
“Even with all that it was touch and go, we didn’t know on the first of June if we’d be allowed to go ahead with the show.
“The Government wasn’t really going ahead with guidelines on outdoor performances. They would tell us how many people could eat inside or stay in a restaurant, but there wasn’t information about being able to perform outdoors.
“Then they were jumping straight to saying we’re doing trials for festivals. But there weren’t going to be anything like 1,000 people at this.
“Luckily we got the go ahead about two weeks before we had to go on, so it was really tight to get the go-ahead from the Shannon Town Park. The Shannon Municipal District were a great help to us, in helping us to put it all together.
“We had to do a lot, and we have to thank the Order of Malta, the Shannon Fire Station, the Guards, the Town Centre, the Comprehensive School, they all helped us to put this together and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
While there was a lot of uncertainty, the decision to go with the project was the right one.
“Even aside from getting to put it on, the camaraderie and the fun of being able to rehearse was huge,” said Martin.
“Unlike most groups who pretty much stopped everything last March, we tried to keep the group active, so we had weekly Zoom meetings, we’d read plays, rehearse readings and we did that pretty much up until January or February of this year.
“We said let’s hope for the best, it looks like by mid summer we should be allowed out, let’s plan for it. We knew there was a chance it wouldn’t go on, that we wouldn’t get to do it, but we said it’s worth trying.
“Luckily everything aligned for us, not to mention the weather. We were all on Accuweather and Yr.No and various other apps for the last two weeks!”
People were delighted to have the chance to go to a production like this one.
“We’re very pleased with how it went and the reaction from the town has been fantastic. We got a lot of compliments about the play itself, but most people were just happy to be out, to be seeing something live, to be gathering together in a group.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
