Have You Met Janine Drew Yet?

Filming for Vultures episode four here in Kilkenny, The Case Of The Poisoned Dates, is almost complete and in advance of the episode’s release, the Mycrofilms bunch recently released a new promo for the episode.

As far back as she can remember, Janine Drew always wanted to be a private detective. And now that she’s in Transition Year, there’s only one place she wants to go on work experience: Vulture Private Investigations. And no one’s going to stop her: not Mrs. Curtin, not her parents and especially not the detectives of V.P.I. Janine Drew is all about ambition. She is smart, focused, highly intelligent and can actually smoke and chew gum at the same time.

What she isn’t however is discreet. It can be easily deduced that Janine is what is known as a ‘chav.’ She likes to wear lots of pink, is fond of her bling, is loud and gossipy and adorns her feet with those monstrosities known as UGG boots. She is Dan McGrain’s worst nightmare come to life: an obnoxiously modern female. And she will break your face if you keep staring at her.

For more on the episode, check here, or play the trailer above.

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Watch Now: The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse

On Saturday night I went along to the premiere screening of The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse, the latest episode in the current series of Vultures. I almost laughed my ass off in parts (seriously) and the lads have done another great job in producing this episode, something which couldn’t be done without the terrific assistance from the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office who also support the activities of The Devious Theatre Company and KilkennyMusic.com.

While I’ve been cast to appear in episode six there’s a possibility I’ll be making a third cameo in four episodes when shooting resumes for episode four later this month.

Filmed and produced entirely on location in Kilkenny (well, sort-of, for this episode), you can now watch or download the third episode for free online. Visit VulturesPI.com or start playing the video above.

I’m Smitten, All Week

My evenings are about to come back to me once again, returning a sense of normality to my days and my blogging routine. What has been “normal” to me for the past 3-4 months have been intensive nights of rehearsals, mornings and weekends of production meetings, script meetings, safety checks, sound design, set design, more production meetings and more food than one could ever possibly consume at ‘The Field’ in Kilkenny.

Tonight sees the opening of my second show in two months. For those of you who don’t know, I’m one of the four heads responsible for the running of The Devious Theatre Company in Kilkenny, at it’s core a six-strong group of actors and theatre lovers striving to develop and promote new programmes of theatre aimed at people our own age. Out with The Field and Oklahoma, in with Trainspotting and Cannibal The Musical and, this week, Smitten.

In a round about way I got to join Darragh Doyle on KCLR 96FM last night (both of us pre-recording at separate times on Monday night) where listeners would have heard myself and writer John Morton talking about Smitten, opening tonight in The Barn at Church Lane, Kilkenny (behind The Good Shepherd Centre / St. Canice’s Cathedral) and running until Saturday.

Smitten is, unashamedly so, a play about Kilkenny, set in Kilkenny, hosted by Kilkenny actors. A mish-mash of stories focusing on topics from alcoholism to pregnancy, mystery girls to testicular cancer, broken hearts to broken hands, make-ups and break-ups… but it’s a comedy at the heart of it all.

John has actually put together a great piece here that’s well worth the read, from the writer’s perspective of Smitten.

This is the fourth new production I’ve been involved in staging over the past two years where this time around I play ‘Niall’ who could quite possibly charm the pants off anything if he put his mind to it. For me it’s been a great role to take given I’ve been wearing other hats as producer for the show, sound designer and general Mr. Transport (have van, will travel). Having played a nice guy record collector, to an all-singing-all-dancing lover of snowmen, to a good-guy-turned-junkie, it’s nice to play someone with a bit of sleaze to their character, shake things up a bit.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check out DeviousTheatre.com. I’ll be hanging out in The Barn pretty much all week and would like to extend my thanks once again to Barnstorm Theatre for providing us with a most excellent rehearsal and performance venue. If you would like to pop along to the show or reserve tickets, drop me a text or email me and we’ll sort something out.

Until then, I’m Smitten.