Quarer And Quarer At The Abbey

Quarer And Quarer At The Abbey

Music at the Abbey is rare enough, but a musical? A new musical? A musical from 'inherently queer, creative, boundary-pushing' Thisispopbaby? Alice in Funderland, with music by Raymond Scannell, is the first new musical to be performed at the National Theatre in over twenty years.

Sarah Greene in THISISPOPBABY’s Alice in Funderland at the Abbey. Photogragh: Jack Phelan.

Music at the Abbey is rare enough, but a musical? A new musical? A musical from ‘inherently queer, creative, boundary-pushing’ Thisispopbaby (as described recently in the Irish Times)? Alice in Funderland, written by Phillip McMahon, with music by Raymond Scannell, is the first new musical to be performed at the National Theatre in over twenty years. It is currently previewing on the Abbey stage, and is due to run from Wednesday, 4 April until Saturday, 12 May.

Produced by Jennifer Jenning, and directed by Wayne Jordon, its origins are described by McMahon thus: ‘This project started life four years ago, when myself and Jennifer Jennings (my cohort at ThisIsPopBaby) had the idea of creating a raucous, large-scale piece of entertainment. An event that was of the city, and for the city. A happening…. It was a big ask.’

The promotional material describes the production as follows: ‘A chance encounter sends Alice, our Corkonian heroine, tumbling through the Dublin streets, where unhinged TV stars sing, politicians grin and everything is loop-de-loop. In this epic pursuit for meaning on the strangest night of her life, will true love prevail before Dolores, The Queen of Hartstown, declares “Off with her head”?’

Scannell’s track record includes a piano based solo play, Mimic, which toured to Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and the Dublin Fringe Festival (for which he won Best Male Performance Award 2008), PS 122, New York (COIL festival 2010), the Irish Arts Center, New York 2011, the Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris and Electric Picnic 2011. Mimic is due to be performed at the West Cork Fit-up Festival July 2012.

The musicians performing the music for Alice in Funderland are Caitriona Frost, Carolyn Goodwin, John McLoughlin and Eimear O’Grady. Ivan Mc Kenna was the musical director and David Hayes was musical supervisor. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the recent revival of Arthur Riordan’s Improbable Frequency at the Gaiety.

abbeytheatre.ie

 

 

Published on 3 April 2012

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