By request: Fergus
Here at Victor and Gord towers we asked all the cast to make a song request. This is Fergus' one. For obvious reasons.
Today would be her 58th birthday
She would kill me for putting this photo up of her as will my little sister. I should be out buying her lunch or sending her flowers or giving her a gift but im not. So Im going to play a song here for her. She loved the Carpenters and i grew up listening to them alot and still love them.
Rainy Days and Mondays.
One of my fondest memories of her was watching National Lampoons Chrsitmas Vacation in bed with her one year. We laughed so much we both wet the bed. She would also kill me for telling you all that.
Happy Birthday Mom..!
Victor in LDN
Hey. Hows it going? Victor here. I am just back from a 1,440 minute adventure in London. I flew over to see a brand spanking new band called The XX. They're pretty damn good in my books. Check them out on their
myspace page. They do a really good cover of one of my fave tunes ever - Tear drops on the dancefloor. Met the band outside Hoxton Hall after the gig and they were super lovely - couldnt belive that i flew from Dublin to see them. If anyone's hitting the Electric Picnic up they've just been added to the line up, but we shant mention the Picnic round these parts.
I landed on Tuesday and hopped on tube and went for lunch with an old friend in Spittalfields. We dined in a place called Leon and it was yummy. I then trundled around the city with a video camera in tow picking up shots for another Fringe show called Who is Fergus Kilpatrick?
I love the tube. Everytime im on it i feel compelled to say the following 'I'm a smartie - in a tube' - i know im a dork.
Met up with my gig buddy Emer and we hooked up with another bud in Soho and had some well deserved pints and chats.
Stayed in a hostel in Kings Cross called Clink. It was mad - it used to be an old couthouse and we were staying in a twin room that was an ACTUAL prison cell. We laughed.
Yesterday we had brekfeast in Camden and i had a pretty tasty Chai Latte (if anyone knows where to get a good Chai in Dublin let me know, im in search of the best one) although i had difficulty finishing it due to my huge hangover.
Anyways im back now and am eagerly anticipating rehearsals. Bring it on.
Blogging Virgin
So I'm sitting in my house contemplating what in God's name I should write as part of the Victor and Gord blog, having just got off the phone from my sister who has asked me kindly to make an entry. While I'm not an internet phob I am strangley uncomfortable about writing about myself and my thoughts etc. Despite being at one with expressing my thoughts and feelings openly in person , I can't help feel slightly self concsious when it comes to writing them down in words on the big world wide web. But... If we don't face the things we fear we'd never get anything done ( I sure as hell wouldnt have taken part in Victor and Gord back in January had I given into my fears.)
It's kinda great however that in general the things you dread doing or worry about doing most can often be the things that give you the greatest satisfaction. Like if you have to sit an exam or do an interview- you're shitting it before hand but once they go well you feel fantastic! Obvious, yes. But I was thinking about the Fringe which is not so far away and how all the same reservations, anxieties and worries are creeping back into mind- will people like it? Will they think it self indulgent? Is the part I talk about interesting to those who dont know me?? But I know once we get back into the swing of it and start rehearsing those emotions will definately turn to positive emotions and a lot of fun will be had.
It's also really exciting to be working with two new cast members, Jay and Fergus- welcome on board lads! Hopefully you wont end up having nightmares about me bossing you as poor Michael did...
Elvis and Madonna !!!
Today is the 32nd anniversary of the death of Elvis ...the King of absolutely everything !!! Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches are being eaten in absolute excess !!
On the other hand, it's also Madonnas 51st birthday..the Queen of absolutely everything!!! Therefore, a new resolution for a purely macrobiotic diet begins tomorrow !!
Long live the King and Queen !
Ali xxx
A strange coincidence
I just got back from home ie "The Cloney " today having spent a lovely weekend in Kilkenny with lots of family including Michael , Jaime and Vin my love and some family pets !! After a number of years suggesting to my Mum that we check out a hotel in Ferrybank that a deceased friend of mine loved , we headed off on a Mother/daughter adventure . The hotel is called The Athenaeum and as it turns out is indeed very nice . While sitting in the bar drinking a vodka and cranberry juice , my Mothers words suddenly sent a strange but welcome shiver down my spine . She exclaimed " I think this is Christendom and my Mother worked here as a cook before she was married " . We checked it out and sure enough the hotel was the old country house in question . It was quite emotional . Our Maternal Grandmother died when we were very young and we didn't have the privilege of knowing her well . It seemed eerie in a nice way that I had wanted to go there for years and that my Mother didn't know that where I was urging her to take me was where her Mother had worked . I felt that I had unexpectedly connected with the past and my Grandmother and it was truly beautiful to experience that with my own Mum .
The photo is of Me and Michael with our Mum .
Ali xxx
Just back from Kilkenny
I'm just back from Kilkenny - the first time I've been down home and seen the family since myself and my sis Ali did Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael in June. We talk alot about growing up in the show and it was important to have a little trip down memory lane before setting off on Victor and Gord Cubed for the Fringe.
Our parents are coming up to see the show this time around. They threatened to wear disguises and not tell us which night they were coming to. It wouldn't be unlike them and it's good to see them getting into the spirit of it all.
I brought Jaime and Sailor for a lurk around where I grew up - the railway and river, old dens - all the places we used to spend so much time running around as a kid, and drink as teenagers.
Getting to the river wasn't as easy as it once was. Fields with no gates? What's the story with that?
So many places are now all overgrown. There's no railway at all anymore - it's just brambles. We used to play there all the time as kids with our neighbours Kevin and Ciara - who feature in the show. We would walk home from school that way and listened to Thriller down there for the first time with Ben Dolan - the Punk who's parents made jewellery. As teenagers we'd get a bus from a disco in Waterford as far as Pink Rock Bridge and take hours making our way up the railway to home, eating takeaway from the Vietnamese Boat People caravan and drinking cans that we'd stashed there for the occasion.
Our parents have done yet another job on the house. Gone is the flock wallpaper in the sitting room (I Loved it!) and it's now all about the sanded original floorboards instead of floral carpet. I probably would do the same if I was living there, but I liked it as it was.
I hope the family like the show. Ali and Michael is all about particular memories, most of which they probably don't share, or at least have a different perspective on. We've been away for so long that we're nostalgic about patterned wallpaper, but I guess if you had to look at it everyday a nice painted white wall would be a lot more attractive.
Just back from Kilkenny
I'm just back from Kilkenny - the first time I've been down home and seen the family since myself and my sis Ali did Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael in June. We talk alot about growing up in the show and it was important to have a little trip down memory lane before setting off on Victor and Gord Cubed for the Fringe.
Our parents are coming up to see the show this time around. They threatened to wear disguises and not tell us which night they were coming to. It wouldn't be unlike them and it's good to see them getting into the spirit of it all.
I brought Jaime and Sailor for a lurk around where I grew up - the railway and river, old dens - all the places we used to spend so much time running around as a kid, and drink as teenagers.
Getting to the river wasn't as easy as it once was. Fields with no gates? What's the story with that?
So many places are now all overgrown. There's no railway at all anymore - it's just brambles. We used to play there all the time as kids with our neighbours Kevin and Ciara - who feature in the show. We used to walk home from school that way and listened to Thriller down there for the first time with Ben Dolan - the Punk who's parents made jewellry. As teenagers we'd get a bus from a disco in Waterford as far as Pink Rock Bridge and take hours making our way up the railway to home, eating takeaway from the Vietnamese Boat People caravan and drinking cans that we'd stashed there for the occassion.
Our parents have done yet another job on the house. Gone is the flock wallpaper in the sitting room (I Loved it!) and it's now all about the sanded floorboards instead of floral carpet. I probably would do the same if I was living there, but I liked it as it was.
I hope the family like the show. Ali and Michael all about particular memories, most of which they probably don't share. We've been away for so long that we're nostaglic about patterned wallpaper, but I guess if you had to look at it everyday a nice painted white wall would be alot more attractive.
Our parents are coming up to see the show this time around. They threatened to wear disguises and not tell us which night they were coming to. It wouldn't be unlike them and it's good to see them getting into the spirit of it all.
I brought Jaime and Sailor for a lurk around where I grew up - the railway and river, old dens - all the places we used to spend so much time running around as a kid, and drink as teenagers.
Getting to the river wasn't as easy as it once was. Fields with no gates? What's the story with that?
So many places are now all overgrown. There's no railway at all anymore - it's just brambles. We used to play there all the time as kids with our neighbours Kevin and Ciara - who feature in the show. We used to walk home from school that way and listened to Thriller down there for the first time with Ben Dolan - the Punk who's parents made jewellry. As teenagers we'd get a bus from a disco in Waterford as far as Pink Rock Bridge and take hours making our way up the railway to home, eating takeaway from the Vietnamese Boat People caravan and drinking cans that we'd stashed there for the occassion.
Our parents have done yet another job on the house. Gone is the flock wallpaper in the sitting room (I Loved it!) and it's now all about the sanded floorboards instead of floral carpet. I probably would do the same if I was living there, but I liked it as it was.
I hope the family like the show. Ali and Michael all about particular memories, most of which they probably don't share. We've been away for so long that we're nostaglic about patterned wallpaper, but I guess if you had to look at it everyday a nice painted white wall would be alot more attractive.
Extract from Interview for Queer Notions Festival
Below is an interview Una McKevitt (Director) and Vickey Curtis gave to www.gaelick.com about "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" in June.
“You know those friends you grew up with? Went to school with? Laughed, cried, partied and pulled with? D’you ever wonder sometimes, will they ever just F*ck Off?”
We’re just friends because we ARE friends, do you know what I mean?
So says Vickey Curtis (AKA Victor) of her best friend since childhoood Aine McKevitt
(AKA Gord) And yes, I DO know what she means! In case you think this was some
confidential information imparted by Vickey, this is in fact the subject matter
of her performance (play? documentary?) Victor and Gord/Ali and Michael
which opens later this week as part of Queer Notions at Project Arts Centre.
So how did the friendship end up on stage?
It was Una’s (sister of Aine/Gord) idea. The three of us have been friends for like…ever. Una gave us the nicknames and had the idea to make a performance of our friendship. To put ‘real lives’ on stage, so we devised the piece around…us, the way we are around each other! It’s full of all things the things we remember from growing up together.
So the rehearsals are about digging into your friendship…?
Yeah completely headwrecking! Sometimes it’s like therapy!
The other ‘characters’ in the play are real-life brother and sister Ali
and Michael Barron. So how did they come on board?
Una found found them on Facebook! She saw a photo of them and thought they looked great! They’re brother and sister and also best friends, they’re hilarious together… and they’ve never acted before!
Director/Actor Una Mckevitt has lots of shows under her belt, mostly as an actor including a 2004 version of Genet’s The Maids: Spurt!Sister!Spurt!(directed by Vickey) which featured our beloved Panti as Madame, naturally!(Panti’s new show A Woman in Progress is also been performed as part of Queer Notions)
So a question for Una, acting or directing?
I’ve always liked performing and when I was at college I usually performed in a show during the summer, such as the one you mention Spurt!Sister!Spurt! in Fringe 2004. At college I studied Devising and Playwriting and the work I make now is really a mix between these two practices. Collaborating with performers and shaping the work we make together for the stage is what makes me excited at the moment.
I love plays, I love going to plays but I’m not a text based performer or director and I can’t think of one play I’d like to perform in or direct! I can think of lots of plays I’d like to make though.
Introducing Fergus Kealy
Hey Everyone,
Wednesday at the Fringe Launch the full cast of "Victor and Gord CUBED" were all together for the first time. The launch was good fun and we looked like a tribe in our matching Victor and Gord CUBED T-Shirts! Many thanks to Michael and Pete Reddy for sorting those out for us.
I first met Fergus in 2006 when my friend Veronica Dyas and I cast him in a show i'd written in college "The Backwoods Boys". It was the summer before our final year and we showed the play upstairs in The International Bar in Dublin. Fergus played the youngest brother of 3, Mani, and he had to lie on the not so clean floor as the audience came in, walked over and around him, and tried to squeeze into their seats in the tiny space.
We've met a few times since and chatted about some day working together again so I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks of rehearsals working with himself and Jay. Last night the three of us read through their individual interviews together. It can be difficult reading your own words back to yourself and to other people.I asked them to take their time and direct themselves through it, so to read something from their own interview and then stop and listen to the other read. Jason called it "Pass the paragraph"!! They both finished their interviews at the same time which really interested me because they are quite different lengths. In terms of working co-operatively with each other i think this bodes very well.
Going from directing 2 people in January in Victor and Gord (Vickey and Aine)to 4 people in June for "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" and now to 6 for this show in September feels like a unique experience and can be also a little overwhelming at times. Six big personalities, organising rehearsal schedules that suit everyone, producing and directing...but its exciting too because as with the past two shows the result of our rehearsals is impossible to predict. Whether or not introducing two new cast into it will change the form and structure of the existing piece completely or leave it intact is impossible to predict right now. I reckon it will. And then I reckon it won't. Fergus asked me how rehearsals would proceed going forward and I said we'd be making it up as we go along...that's the fun bit!
Best,
Una
Introducing Jay Breen
Hey Everyone,
I'd like to introduce you to Jay Breen, our latest recruit!
Jay will be joining Fergus Kealy, another new recruit, in the show. Their only relationship to each other is that they haven't yet met...we hope to "exploit" this new relaionship in Victor and Gord CUBED where they will join Victor and Gord, friends since birth and Ali and Michael, a brother and sister.
I interviewed Jay at the weekend and include a quote from his interview here. Jay is discussing his response to "Victor and Gord, Ali and Michael" which he saw at the Queer Notions Festival, where it appeared June 24th and 25th. Jason saw the performance on the 25th.
IN the interview I asked Jason what he made of the show he saw:
"I was surprised at how emotional it was, raw emotion. If someone got upset it was real. That was something I could relate to straight away. I could really relate to that, the sad bits. It was funny. It was really like what life is. Funny, tragic and it could change just like that. And it did. And life is like that. I found it very realistic."
I asked Jason why he was interested in joining the show:
"I enjoyed what i saw for starters and I related to it and it seems like an interesting thing to do. Maybe people will enjoy what I have to say and it'll have an effect on somebody the way it did on me."
Welcome to Victor and Gord CUBED Jay!!
Una McKevitt
Twister!!!!!!!!!!
We had a brilliant evening, great fun and atmosphere. Thank you to everyone who supported us! And to everyone who sponsored our amazing prizes.
In this clip Una McKevitt (Director) and her sister Aine McKevitt (Gord) attempt to play Twister. The loud voice with the cool haircut spinning the board is Vickey Curtis, (Victor)
GAME ON!
A NIGHT OF FUN AND GAMES WITH VICTOR AND GORD
PANTIBAR, CAPEL STREET
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 5TH FROM 7PM
GIANT JENGA, CONNECT 4, TWISTER, PARTY GAMES
AND MUCH MORE!!
PRIZES INCLUDE 2 WALK ON PARTS IN FAIR CITY!!
ADMISSION FREE
BRING YOUR GAME!
28-07-2009 Una McKevitt
This week I'm on a countdown to find the pair who will join Vickey, Aine, Michael and Ali in Victor and Gord CUBED. I need to confirm who this pair are before August 1st and begin work on their interviews and start rehearsals with them. Being part of a big festival like Dublin Fringe is great but it does mean some of the people I would like to be involved are committed to other projects in Fringe. But, the nearer it gets to the line, the more exciting it becomes cause the challenge increases and this project always responds well to challenges. Also Ali and Michael had over three months between being approached by me to participate and actually performing and this was a cause of some stress for them; the anticipation of what would happen grew larger and larger; whereas I think Aine and Vickey benefitted from only having a month to get their heads around the whole thing.
So whoever you are, you NEW TWO, hurry up and let me find you and let's make some theatre together!
So whoever you are, you NEW TWO, hurry up and let me find you and let's make some theatre together!
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