Spark Productions

John Morton is a founder and director of Devious Theatre. He worked as a mentor with Adrian Kavanagh to re-develop the original One For The Road. His works have had critical acclaim with plays such as  War of Attrition and Heart Shaped Vinyl. We asked him to write a few words on the process and working with Adrian Kavanagh on Last Of The Freshers as part of Project Y.E.S, here’s what he had to say.

I saw The Last Of The Freshers when it was called One For The Road back in 2011. The skill, talent and resourcefulness of the Sparks troupe out in Graiguenamanagh became evident to me very quickly. It was a very funny, charming, inventive site-specific piece of theatre and it promised great things from the group. They’ve delivered on that promise in the past three years with a diverse selection of plays performed in Graiguenamanagh and beyond… aka Kilkenny and New Ross. But small steps are important and the lads sure know how to move quick.

 

As a member of The Devious Theatre Company in Kilkenny, I’d gotten used to us being the whelps running around causing theatrical mischief in the county but once Sparks arrived, that was no more. With the assistance of Leader and the Youngsters On The European Stage programme, we’ve set up (an ever evolving) partnership for us to mentor Spark Productions stretching from 2013-2015 (and maybe even beyond). There are three big reasons this programme has been set up over the past year (and several good smaller reasons).  The first is to make sure that Spark Productions and the members of the troupe develop as a vibrant, unique company and makers of theatre. The second is to set up a youth theatre in rural Kilkenny, the first of its kind, which will give countless teenagers opportunities to perform and work in theatre. The third is to provide audiences in County Kilkenny with an expanded range of theatrical entertainment. So far, so good.

 

As with anything in theatre, it’s been a lot of refining, developing, trying and testing but the fruits of this development process are beginning to show. Our job has been to provide the lads with creative, technical and yes, moral support (plenty of that in supply). We enable them to get the best results from their productions (bate the craic out of it) and give them access to professional theatre practitioners, workshops and experience professional work. Their job simply is to keep having fun, keep getting better and keep making work. They’re doing a fine job of it so far.

 

One of my main duties has been to work on script development with Adrian Kavanagh, the man who runs the day-to-day operations of Spark Productions and writes a lot of plays in the meantime. He’s a very talented writer and one I’ve enjoyed working with since he first participated in a Devious Theatre show in 2011. We set ourselves the goal of creating a new piece of writing for Spark Productions but very early on, we realised that it made sense to go back to an earlier show and give it the development that it didn’t have starting off. Go back, refine, freshen up. I wanted Adrian to look at an old play and fix what was wrong before doing something new. Also, it helps that The Last Of The Freshers (as he renamed it) was a hit when it was first performed and would likely perform just as well presented anew. It was the perfect play to develop a writer with. The bulk of the work was done, it just needed an upgrade. We’ve been working on it the last two months, focusing on what worked really well before and fixing what didn’t. Character, structure, themes, subplots, we went through everything with a fine tooth comb. It’s even possible that we reduced use of the word ‘fuck’ by almost 40% leaving only 1,294 instances of the word occurring in the play. But seriously, Adrian has done an animal job and I’m very excited to spend a bit of time in the rehearsal room with the actors this August.

Adrian has come on great guns as a writer the past few years and the development process we’re undertaking with Spark Productions should push him further. As part of this programme, we’ve commissioned him to write a new play for Devious Theatre. He’s been working on The Union since last year. We’re hoping to premiere it next spring, although theatre isn’t the safest long ball game at the moment so we’ll see how that goes. The play is a natural extension of his writing style and should seem very ‘Sparks’. It’s set in the same world as The Last Of The Freshers, has some overlapping characters and will again feature Tully’s pub. Stylistically, it’ll be a little bit more stylistically out there than Adrian’s previous plays, maybe a bit more ‘Devious’ too? It’s a natural progression of this development process and the play should have the feel of a Sparks/Devious hybrid. I’m looking forward to seeing it travel to the stage.

 

The Last Of The Freshers is going to be a really exciting production from Spark Productions. For starters, the play is a very fresh, funny relevant piece of writing. Secondly, they are getting better with every play they do. The performances in Danti-Dan and Bunny in the past year were fantastic, a surefire sign of how much better the entire troupe have become as actors. There’s a lot for audiences to get excited about this year.

 

I’m looking forward to seeing it this August, even more so than I was when I first saw it with no expectations back in 2011. Maybe everyone’s expectations will be higher. Well, they should be because Spark Productions have gotten better as each year has gone on.

 

No pressure lads…

 

John Morton

 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why the name changed, part of the development process is letting young writers know that Harold Pinter wrote it first and you might be best served with a title change. Shur look…