Violence offers ‘way of survival’ in Crestfall
“There’s something so fantastic about Mark’s use of rhythm and his language. Muscular is the word we keep coming up with to describe his writing,” says actress Siobhán Cullen about Mark O’Rowe’s 2003 play Crestfall.
The play about three women from a less-than-idyllic Irish town will be performed at Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre as part of Galway International Arts Festival.
Directed by Annabelle Comyn, it consists of three monologues from the three formidable, troubled women. Olive is promiscuous, sleeping with any man she can, while weary Alison, who is played by Siobhán, is trapped in an unhappy marriage and Tilly is a drug-addicted prostitute.
If the characters’ words rhyme, their lives do not – this is a dark, violent play, albeit one that seems to offer a hope of redemption.
Siobhán, a graduate of Drama and Theatre at Trinity College, feels Crestfall is a great play for a performer.
“As an actor, when you read it first time, you can’t read it fast enough. You just want to dive in and explore it,” she says. “It’s great to have an-all female play and one that’s so gritty and grimy and fierce.
“This is a violent, nearly post-apocalyptic world, where everything is on the cusp of change, evil is encroaching and violence becomes a way of survival”.
Because of how Crestfall is written, “you have to know every line and every comma and punctuation mark”, adds Siobhán.
Rehearsals are now past the half-way mark, having begun in Dublin and moved to Druid two weeks ago.
As someone who has followed and admired Druid for years, Dublin-born Siobhán is delighted to be on her first outing with the company.
“It’s one of the companies you want to work with, especially to be here in Galway and to see it all.”
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.