WILD OATS by John O'Keefe
WILD OATS by Lost Theatre Company
Upstairs At The Gatehouse
13 Feburary 2008 - 1 March 2008
Barra Collins is appearing as Sim and The Ruffian in Wild Oats.
THE LOST Theatre Company is presenting Irish playwright John O'Keefe's Wild Oats, Upstairs at the Gatehouse The play, described as a sparkling Regency comedy, tells the story of how Rover, the star in a travelling troupe of actors, is persuaded to undertake the role of his friend Harry Thunder, in order to present himself as suitor to Harry's cousin Amaranth, and how, by doing so, he sets in motion a whole series of mistaken identities and ingenious intrigues - with hilarious results.
Although Wild Oats is a comedy, it's set in a time of much violence, poverty and injustice - when poor men could be arbitrarily evicted without warning, mariners press-ganged into the navy, and actors persecuted as rogues and vagabonds. O'Keefe, however, demonstrates how humanity and love can triumph even in a sometimes squalid, unsympathetic and perplexing world.
His hero Rover is a lost soul as much in search of an identity as any character of Pirandello; even his speech is not his own, but is borrowed from the characters he has played; while nearly everyone else in the play is either actually or spiritually 'disguised' in a genuinely Shakespearean theme of concealed identities.
Yet the author's view of life is unfailingly optimistic, and his purpose is compassionate and reconciliatory, with lessons that may well be of benefit to our own distracted and distracting times.
WILD OATS by Lost Theatre Company
Upstairs At The Gatehouse
13 Feburary 2008 - 1 March 2008
Barra Collins is appearing as Sim and The Ruffian in Wild Oats.
THE LOST Theatre Company is presenting Irish playwright John O'Keefe's Wild Oats, Upstairs at the Gatehouse The play, described as a sparkling Regency comedy, tells the story of how Rover, the star in a travelling troupe of actors, is persuaded to undertake the role of his friend Harry Thunder, in order to present himself as suitor to Harry's cousin Amaranth, and how, by doing so, he sets in motion a whole series of mistaken identities and ingenious intrigues - with hilarious results.
Although Wild Oats is a comedy, it's set in a time of much violence, poverty and injustice - when poor men could be arbitrarily evicted without warning, mariners press-ganged into the navy, and actors persecuted as rogues and vagabonds. O'Keefe, however, demonstrates how humanity and love can triumph even in a sometimes squalid, unsympathetic and perplexing world.
His hero Rover is a lost soul as much in search of an identity as any character of Pirandello; even his speech is not his own, but is borrowed from the characters he has played; while nearly everyone else in the play is either actually or spiritually 'disguised' in a genuinely Shakespearean theme of concealed identities.
Yet the author's view of life is unfailingly optimistic, and his purpose is compassionate and reconciliatory, with lessons that may well be of benefit to our own distracted and distracting times.
Upstairs At The Gatehouse
13 Feburary 2008 - 1 March 2008