‘Irish Everyman’ is hero of Peter’s debut play
He is best known as an actor whose credits include Love/Hate and The Butcher Boy – now Peter Gowen is touring Ireland his own one-man show, The Chronicles of Oggle.
The Cork actor will visit Galway on Thursday next, April 9, with this hilarious and heartbreaking drama of small towns and even smaller minds, which premiered in his native Youghal in April 2013 and subsequently played Cork’s Everyman Theatre. The play has just been published by Bloomsbury in London and this tour celebrates that event.
Peter is no stranger to Galway, having lived here for periods during the 1990s, when he worked with Druid Theatre, and in the early 2000s when he appeared in Trad by Mark Doherty which was commissioned by Galway Arts Festival and went on to tour festivals from Edinburgh to Adelaide.
“It’s a comedy but it points towards darker things,” says Peter of The Chronicles of Oggle, which looks the life and history of an imaginary town through the eyes of orphan boy Pakie.
He may not be the brightest boy on the block, but Pakie knows plenty about the history of his own town, from the Vikings and Walter Raleigh to the not-always Christian actions of the Christian Brothers.
He knows lots of secrets too, although whether his fellow residents want him to expose these secrets is another matter.
“I wanted to write about being a child in an orphanage in Ireland in the 1960s and 1970s, how neglected and badly socialised these children were,” says Peter.
That was his first idea for the play. The second one, which also found its way into the script, is the ‘second coming’ of Jesus. But this time it’s a completely powerless and disadvantaged Jesus, without the ability to work miracles.
“He is a person who is odd because of neglect but is someone who can generate love, so a Jesus-like character is present,” says Peter of Pakie.
The actor, who now lives in London, grew up in Youghal during the 1960s and ‘70s, so he is familiar with both the era and the place.
“Every boy of my age and generation used to think, ‘if there’s a second coming, am I going to be Jesus?’ he says with a laugh, “and this boy is the same.”
The initial production of The Chronicles of Oggle in 2013 was directed by Donal Gallagher of Asylum Productions, who has reprised his role this time out. It was funded by Cork County Council and the Everyman. Some of the action was based on events from Peter’s life and those of his friends, including incidents concerning the Christian Brothers.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.