They Never Froze Walt Disney

The Granary Theatre, Cork
8th-12th January at 8pm (preview January 7th)

Bookings & Info: 021 490 4275

A play that premiered during the Midsummer Festival is back on stage in Cork this week, at a time when the temperature is more in keeping with the title.

Jody O’Neill has written a one-hour play starring herself and John McCarthy, and it is difficult not to have a smile fixed to your face for the duration.

Paudie and Marie come on like two archetypal hangovers from an almost forgotten Ireland. They meet in a funeral home, which could be located anywhere between Shandon Street and Craggy Island.

Jody O’Neill’s character is a home-knit psychosis that steadily unravels as the threads of the story are tugged. It is not long before we find our that she is responsible for the death of the man laid out for removal.

Her childhood sweetheart – still friendly after all the years – is played with comic skill by John McCarthy, who is in equal measures daft and deferential. When Marie confides that she finds it cold, Paudie tells her helpfully, “That’ll be the guilt”.

Director Jack Healy puts a nice squeeze on the script, getting the play to pop with a sense of sexual repression. The flickering of scenes between youth and older age is done very credibly and with the minimum of fuss.

It is tantalising to think what might have been if the script ratcheted up the comedy instead of moving wholeheartedly into loneliness and madness at the end.

But this is a very enjoyable, zany little love story kept naggingly on simmer for years. And Jody O’Neill leaves the stage with her cooky charms intact – like she is popping out to catch the last Mass.

Liam Heylin, Evening Echo, 09/01/2008.

The trailer, starring Jody O’Neill as Marie & John McCarthy of Hammergrin as Paudie, was directed by our very own Jack Healy & Eoin Ó hAnnracháin of Clinic Media, filmed by Barry Ronan of Ephira Films,edited by Eoin and the text was designed by Frank Prendergast.

A Darkly Comic Tale of Love and Loneliness

Previewing Monday January 7th and running Tuesday January 8th to Saturday January 12th nightly at 8pm at the Granary Theatre, The Mardyke, Cork. Tickets are priced at €15 and €10 (preview and concession).

Directed by Jack Healy, this darkly comic piece traces the lives of Marie (Jody O’Neill) and Paudie (John McCarthy), from the 1960’s to present day, flashing between their first encounters and the highly suspicious circumstances that reunite them many years later.

Theatre Makers is a new theatre company based in Cork, committed to developing new ways of facilitating the actor’s art. They Never Froze Walt Disney, the company’s first production, premiered last June as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival where it was warmly received by audiences and critics alike.
“. . . sparkling black comic dialogue…” (Irish Examiner).
For further information, please contact Jack Healy, 086 0662705. Eoin Ó hAnnracháin 086 3419394 or log on to www.theatremakers.net

Unitarian Church. (Beside English Market) Princes St. at 1pm. (Running Time 45 mins approx)

June 25th – 30th.

A chilling tale of romance, remorse and refrigeration in rural Ireland.

Cast: Jody O’Neill and John McCarthy.

Directed by Jack Healy.

“They Never Froze Walt Disney”, a chilling tale of romance, remorse and refrigeration in rural Ireland. This black comedy spans the extraordinarily ordinary lives of two characters, Marie and Paudie, from the 1960’s to the present day. A compelling, witty and often moving piece, “They Never Froze Walt Disney” flashes between the early stages of Marie and Paudie’s relationship and the unusual circumstances under which they encounter one another again, many years later