Venue: Assembly George Square Studios Three, EH8 9JZ
Time: 1500 Running Time: 90 mins
Dates: 1st – 25th August. No show Mon 11 or 18 August.
Tickets: Previews £9; 2 & 3, 6 & 7, 12-14, 19-21 & 25 August £13 (£12); 4 & 5, 8-10, 15-17, 22-24 August £14 (£13)
The Matchmaker, based on the novella “Letters of a County Matchmaker” by John B Keane one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers, will play at Georges Square Studio Three as part of the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival at 1500 daily from 31st July to 25th August.
The production stars television favourite Anne Charleston known for her roles as “Madge Bishop” in the Australian soap opera Neighbours (Kylie’s Mum) and “Lily Butterfield” in Emmerdale. Irish Actor and comedian Jon Kenny(who was part of the Irish comic duo d’Unbelievables with Pat Shortt) joins Anne to complete the cast. Kenny is best known outside Ireland for appearing in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted. Together the duo play a myriad of characters in this hilarious and earthy dramatic comedy.
The play follows the efforts of Dicky Mick Dicky O Connor to make matches for the lonely and lovelorn. Keane, an avid observer of people and the cultures that bind and create their view of the world uses “The Matchmaker” as an exploration of rural loneliness. Aware that generations of people became masters of their own destinies late in life, and only then began to look for companionship and love, once their duties as minder of ageing parents were concluded or they had finally inherited, or were the left over brother or sister. Using his inimitable way with words and his one sense of “devilment” and wit, Keane delves into the longings, hungers, fears and foibles of this collection of lonely county people and creates a marvellously colourful world, taking us back to a simpler time, when phones were few and far between and the only web was one left behind by spiders.
The language is that as spoken by the people of north Kerry particularly the area known as Lyracrumpaín (Lyra crum paw inn) which is Irish – translated into English directly, so the words follow often the syntax of an Irish sentence structure … but in English.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
