Новая постановка «Кукла Кафки» от Theatre Lovett откроет фестиваль в Дублине в сентябре 2026 года

I remember the angst of wanting and waiting to make friends. I wasn’t up to my neck in friends as a child, and I spent a lot of time wishing I would make friends. I played football with Albert Rovers, first in Kennedy Park and then made the big switch to Douglas Hall when I was about 12. I remember my hands being frozen after being on the sideline in Kennedy Park and thawing them out by the fire in Neil Crowley’s granny’s house on Albert Road afterward. I loved Neil’s granny’s house. I can still see her blazing hearth. I moved to Dublin to form a band in the early nineties with a fella from Cork (Mark Wilkins, who called everyone “fella”.) I met my wife Muireann in Dublin on a theatre job, and in 2010 we formed a theatre company which, with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland and the artistic vision and work ethic of Muireann, is still going. We are currently rehearsing a new show, by Frances Kay, in the wonderful Mall Arts Centre in Youghal. A team of theatrical collaborators from Cork and beyond make Youghal by the Sea the perfect place to be. Unless of course I am performing in a theatre, surfing the electric energy of a Friday night audience (a very happy place for me). Cork audiences have that rare tendency to talk to the performers on stage. Which is fine by me. I’ve been heckled, only in Cork. Once they don’t call me the L word, and I don’t mean Louis. I might drive the van to visit a very fine set builder in Wexford to collect a piece of stage scenery, visit costume stores in Dublin, rehearse in Youghal in lovely East Cork, collect a designer from Cork Airport while all the time learning lines or a piece of music. Often in the one day. When I can lie in, I do so with great serenity of mind and can commit fully to it, but if I need to be up with the lark then I’m up with the lark and no larking about! Muireann and I have spent many Sundays loading and unloading costumes, sets and props in order to be ready for a rehearsal room on Monday morning. Being on stage before an audience is the tip of the iceberg when you run your own company. It’s basically a class of dump but one that predates plastic. Think gorgeous, queerly shaped bottles, ceramics, earthenware, bits of tin and most of it, tantalisingly, broken. But when you reach into the earth and tweak and twist and tempt to the surface a piece of thick blue glass and then discover it to be fully intact, entire of itself, not a crack nor a chip — oh, the thrill. Like landing a fish. Only you don’t have to put the glass back. No, you wash it and buff it and ogle it and imagine those pre-plastic days and the people who purchased it, used it and then flung it into a ditch. But no lie-ins till this new show, , is up and running. This black and white, silent movie with a remarkable score by Cork groovy maker John O’Brien has been invited to many festivals around the world, and hopefully we shall get to attend one such festival. Meanwhile, Theatre Lovett are crafting future theatre adventures. Theatre Lovett’s new play previews at the Theatre Royal Waterford (August 28) and makes its world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Peacock stage, September 4 to 12, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2026. The play, a new family show, opens up the world of Franz Kafka to young people and their older counterparts. Kafka’s Doll is written by Kafka expert Frances Kay (based in Cork). Starring is Cork’s Louis Lovett and Cork circus star performer Cormac Mohally. See: https://theatrelovett.com/shows/kafkas-doll