Ten Treats at the Cork Arts Theatre

Brendan Morris, Michael Murphy and Stephen Pinfield in 'Murder on the Living Room Floor'

‘It is an important fundraiser for the theatre,’ says Jim Horgan, organiser of the ninth annual 10x10 event at the Cork Arts Theatre, ‘but it has grown into something else.’

Last night, I went along to see this year’s offering: another ten unique plays written specifically for this event, all debuting on the CAT Club stage on the same week, at the same time.

Jim, who has been running the event right from its inception, spoke humbly of how the programme has influenced both the Cork Arts Theatre and also the community. In the beginning, he explained, the ideas was to mirror the success of the Boston 10 Minute Play Marathon. In fact, for the first three years, many of the scripts were drawn directly from the Boston event and restaged here by local directors.

Mike O' Dowd and Den Coleman '(Con)flagrant Disregard'

While this worked for a time, in its third year, the theatre decide to throw its doors open to submissions from local writers. The rest, as they say, is history. This year, the Cork Arts Theatre was inundated with 94 original ten minute scripts to choose from. It was, Jim admitted, a difficult task to whittle it down.

Backstage, as we spoke, 26 actors were preparing to perform. If you’ve seen the dressing rooms in the CAT Club, you’ll know that’s no joke! But that really embodies the atmosphere of the 10x10s. The performers that I spoke to were in good spirits: laughing, joking, flailing a chainsaw in the air (safely, of course!).

Samantha Kelleher, Director

Samantha Kelleher told me about her involvement with the event. Although, unfortunately, hers was one of the whopping 84 scripts that couldn’t be selected, she bounced right back, and was taking the reins of another play: You Should Be Ashamed by Zoë Conlon. This was her second time directing, after the success of Tiny Little Love Scenes earlier in the year.

Samantha, when asked what it was like to be directing for the 10x10s, said it was ‘a community experience, really nice. Nobody is paid to be here. It keeps the CAT Club going.’ And it was clear that her love for the CAT Club extended beyond this one event. She spoke of the ‘magical sense’ that you get when you walk into its small, intimate theatre space.

Nowadays, she has her own theatre company Firecite, with business partner Alex Herlihy, director of another of the 10x10s, What a Scream. However, she acknowledged the role that the CAT Club has played in her formation as a dramaturg. In particular, she cited the many plays staged there by the Wolfe Stage School as instilling in her a love of the place. ‘It’s got a real homely vibe to it.’

And last but not least: this isn’t a review, but I can’t conclude without giving my verdict on the ten plays in question. I have to say, I was well impressed. With ten different offerings, you would expect there to be one weak link, but the standard was very high across the board. Samantha and Alex both delivered wonderful direction. Particular shout-outs have to go out to Joy Buckle for the daunting task of performing a ten-minute monologue, which she executed with vision and fair; to What A Scream for its madcap humour and larger-than-life characters; to Dermot Holmes for truly embodying Cork's second-biggest GAA fan, head-motions and all; and to Timing is Everything for its topical, yet brilliantly crafted script on the topic of forced adoption. A last mention goes to Wheelchair, a conversation full of challenging and engaging character dynamics, that I was enjoying long before the final twist.

I wish the Cork Arts Theatre all the best with the remainder of their run (there are only a handful of tickets left, so grab them now if you’re thinking of going!), and of course, best of luck to all the performers vying for the ‘Audience Award’.

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