Jon in his element in new one-man show ‘Crowman’
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Half-way through an interview about his latest theatre show, Crowman, actor, comedian, musician and general all-rounder Jon Kenny breaks into perfect French as he starts gesticulating at windows, doors and tables in the café, describing each one in turn. The Limerick man is so pitch-perfect, he could be from Paris,
It lasts just a few second, and no, Jon hasn’t lost the plot. He’s just explaining how, to compensate for the dyslexia that blighted his schooldays, he developed an ability to listen intently to accents and mimic them, something that’s stood to him since.
Jon will be using that talent in Crowman, a one-man show by playwright and performer Katie Holly, which he’ll perform at the City’s Town Hall Theatre next Thursday, January 24.
He plays a multitude of characters in this dark comedy about an unusual man in his 50s, “who, in some situations suffers from anxiety, but who is comfortable in his own space, who’s bright and smart and used to his own company”, according to the actor.
Dan, the Crowman of the title, loves music and wildlife and is well-versed in many aspects of life – but he’s also a loner, who even as a child had no interest in the favourite local pastime of hurling.
“He’s strange and quirky, but he’s a lovely individual and the audience has a lot of affinity with him,” says Jon about Dan.
Dan has an intense hatred of crows and is on a mission to destroy any of them that blight his eyeline. But he keeps getting distracted by Masses and funerals that he must attend. Not to mention having imaginary conversations with his beloved sheepdog, as well as with BBC wildlife presenter David Attenborough, TV chefs and racing commentators – all so that so that he can escape his own internal voice.
“A couple of things go wrong along the way and it shows how easy it is for people to become isolated,” says Jon of Dan’s life. “The world can be cruel to people who are different – and he’s just slightly different.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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