Diamond in the Rough|

Gúna Nua Theatre is renowned for producing vibrant new work. Their latest production Little Gem is a touching, hilarious and brilliantly performed piece of theatre which has proved so successful that the story of it’s making and phenomenal success would make a fine play in itself | Sarah talks to Director Paul Meade

When Gúna Nua Theatre’s Artistic Director, Limerick man Paul Meade, read an unsolicited play from an unknown scriptwriter, Elaine Murphy, which arrived in the post he was immediately taken with the idea of producing it because the story was so great. He had no inkling that Little Gem would become the runaway success of theatrical dreams,  “It was an unsolicited script we received here at Guná Nua and I thought immediately we have to do it because it is so good, you know. So we talked to Elaine the scriptwriter, I think she sent it to every theatre in Ireland but no one had picked up on it, we were very lucky in that regard. Then we cast it, with a brilliant cast and we performed it in the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2008 originally. It got a great reception and a really popular reception too, it wasn’t a show that only theatre people went to. The production then went to Civic Theatre and we got loads of women’s groups from Tallaght and around the area to come and see it and they loved it and told all their friends to go and see it so it has kind of developed it’s own momentum that way, you know.”

Little Gem won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award which brought the play to New York for a two week showcase where it was critical and popular hit. The play continues to traverse the globe hitting Paris and London after their run in the Belltable this month. The critics love it because it is a sensitively crafted, perfectly cast and poignantly directed piece of new Irish theatre; the audiences love it because it is an hilarious, cheeky, irreverant, touching story everyone can relate to. Paul explains the simple premise behind this wonderful play, “It’s about a family in the northside of Dublin, a sort of year in the life of a grandmother, mother and daughter, and alot happens in that year; everything from birth, death, new releationships. It’s a beautifully crafted play because each of them starts off in the beginning with a dilemna and the events that happen are big and affect them but the central dilemna is resolved alongside that. It is a beautifully written play and just really very funny, real salt of the earth humour and everyone can recognise these women, it could be your grandmother or sister or mother. Everyone comes out of the play crying or laughing. I think that is why it has been so successful. But that is not to say it is a total weepy, people do cry but it is a very very funny play.”

The impact of Little Gem is immediate and down in no small part to the magnificent cast of Anita Reeves, Hilda Fay and Aoife Duffin who, in a special judges decision, were granted Best Female Performance of the Dublin Fringe Festival in ’08, recognising their spectacular ensemble effort. Elaine Murphy won the Fishamble Award for Best New Irish Writing but before the awards came flooding in the piece had to be produced, how did the production begin? “Well it was funny, I had to convince an awful lot of people to get involved at the start. Luckily Anita Reeves who plays the Grandmother loved the script from the beginning and her being on board made people believe in it more because it is really difficult to get new theatre on in Ireland, it can be really really hard. Then Hilda Faye, who you might know from Fair City, auditioned and she was great so we cast her. It’s funny if we had more money we might have got more P.R out of Hilda and Anita but we didn’t even have the money to be able to capitalise on that so we were lucky that the play was quite strong and it built on that, from small theatres and the audience reaction. The play itself is a celecbration of ordinary people and how they cope with what life throws at them, and it focuses on the idea of families and things that happen in families are universal.”

Awards, accolades, critics praise and wild fire word of mouth recommendations from delighted audiences means there’s no stopping this Little Gem. Book your tickets fast.

To book your tickets for Little Gem visit www.belltable.ie or call the Box-Office on 061 319 866