John McCarthy of Hammergrin graciously agreed to answer a few questions about The Iowa Project.

Q1. Where did the idea for the project come from?
The festival director, William Galinsky, really liked last year’s Threat of Humour, and met us to discuss working on a project for this year. He encouraged us to read the works of Philip K. Dick, feeling we’d riff off them well, and we did, and ran with it for the last six months.

Q2. What was the inspiration for the marketing campaign?
The poster picks up on the 50s comic book feel of the show, the blurb eggs up the classic sci-fi tone to the script, and the flyer (attached) is basically a cheap pun which allows us to advertise the show and feel better than normal people.

Q3. How much did the venue influence your ideas?
Massively. It is such a great space that we had to work with it, rather than against it, using the warehouse as a set, rather than trying to turn it into a theatre space. A lot of the show will take place in daylight, which streaks in the high windows and casts an eery glow over proceddings. The script was largely finished when we got in there but the way scenes unfolded and connected only came together when we got into the warehouse. It changed some big ideas in the script, in a good way.

[Ed - You can see a sneak preview of the set here.]

Q4. How does it relate to previous Hammergrin productions/events?
It taps into that 50s Americana which so informed The Threat of Humour and Trying Jokes - that ultra-serious masculine world which takes itself so seriosly it is actually funny.

Q5. Why did you choose the Midsummer Festival for this project?
Without the clout of the Midsummer behind this we wouldn’t have the budget, the pr, or a name sufficient to get the venue for the show. And the inspiration of Philip K.Dick wouldn’t have been there without William’s interest in Hammergrin.

The Old Distillery, North Mall
Sunday 22 – Saturday 28 June, 9pm
Tickets €15/€12

The people who brought you Trying Jokes and The Threat of Humour are back!

That’s right, Hammergrin return to the Midsummer Festival once more, with what has been hailed as “their most adventurous project to date” by festival director William Galinsky.

From the blackness of a hundred million nights and through the depths of the psyche emerges the noble fight of four US government agents, Team Alpha, and their bid to give a great nation its own great literary giant. Their subject: Philip K. Dick!

Using a mysterious new technology - H.A.C.K. - the world’s first mind reading machine — Team Alpha will probe beyond space, into the unknown and beyond the mysteries of the sixth sense, in an attempt to crack a literary code that counterspies of every nation would risk their lives to get!

Join Mitch, Douglas, Nathan and Ava as they enter a world where there is no why…

You can read Hammergrin producer John McCarthy answer 5 of our questions here, and check out a sneaky-peak of their set here.

The Old Distillery, North Mall
Sunday 22 – Saturday 28 June, 9pm
Tickets €15/€12

The Midsummer Festival has kicked off and one of the festival highlights, Magnet Production’s End of the Line by Paul Ioachim, previews tonight.

It’s adapted by Jody O’Neill, who also co-stars with Carl Kennedy and Dan Tudor, under Donal Gallagher’s direction.

The Magnet press release tells us;

At the end of the line, three desperate strangers meet…Waiting on a train. It’s the last stop… But are they waiting to get on, or to get off…? Internationally renowned Romanian playwright, Paul Ioachim’s bittersweet comedy is a quirky, absurd look at three people on the edge of society, about to fall off.

Cork audiences will be familiar with the work of Donal Gallagher from last year’s Meat, Jody O’Neill from last year’s They Never Froze Walt Disney, and Carl Kennedy, from Father Matthew. Dan Tudor is coming from the National Theatre of Bucharest for this production, and I will be most interested to see what comes of mixing Irish theatrical approaches with those of Romania.

Granary Theatre
Monday 16 June (preview),
Tuesday 17 – Friday 20 June, 7.30pm
Saturday 21 June, 3:30pm & 8pm
Tickets €15/€12, preview & Saturday Matinee €10

Dear friends,

This is not our usual show. Have a look!

SNATCH COMEDY IMPROV & Cork Midsummer Festival presents

SNATCH COMEDY: UNCUT & EXTENDED

Cork Arts Theatre
Monday 16 – Saturday 21 June, 9:30pm
Tickets €15/€12

Snatch Comedy have been stretching the limits of skill and inventiveness for six years. Now, for the first time ever in Cork, they will improvise an entire play! There is no safety net, and you, the audience, are the catalyst. A different show every night, this is improvisation as you’ve never seen it before!

Snatch Comedy’s “short-form” improv and sketch shows have earned them huge popularity over the years. This new style is one they have developed themselves specially for the Cork Midsummer Festival. The group will use quick wits and skill to make up the show with no rehearsal whatsoever.

There will be thrills — and there may be spills — as they juggle ideas and make entertainment out of chaos. Will it be sad? Terrifying? Romantic? Fantastic? Nothing is certain until the moment it happens.

“Snatch Comedy are surreally inclined, daftly imaginative and gifted people… This is the most truly interactive and happening comedy in Ireland now” Cork Now

In order to get tickets you can:

- Buy them personally from the Festival Box Office at Merchant’s Quay Shopping Centre, St. Patrick’s Street, Cork;
- Buy them on the phone: 021-4274077
- Buy them online at: www.corkmidsummer.com

See you there & please spread the word!!!!

Marcus

The Cork Gaiety School of Acting Adult Theatre Company present

Why I Haven’t Killed Myself
By Damien Tracey

Cork Arts Theatre June 28th-29th 8pm Preview 27th June 8pm Ticket’s €15 /€10 Concession. Preview tickets 2 for the price of 1

What do you get if you put ten suicidal people, An Angel who has killed himself, St Peter and some dancing Angels into a room?

Why I Haven’t Killed Myself follows the emotional and sometimes hilarious journey of ten people who have tried to kill themselves and are now searching for a reason to continue living.

Arriving at the gates of Heaven fresh from his own suicide Rob a former Counsellor meets St Peter who it can be safely said is nothing like the stories say. Armed with a new top of the range slim lined pair of Angel wings Rob is sent by St Peter on a mission for God. His mission to give back hope to just one person in the psychiatric unit where he worked.

Inspired by his own battle with severe depression and suicidal thoughts first time playwright Damien Tracey has approached the subject form a point of victory and zest for life. Standing on the other side of depression Damien is able to inject a sense of humour into proceedings that make for many hilarious scenes.

The Adult Theatre Company of the Cork Gaiety School of Acting return after the successful Cork run and Tour of ‘Flesh.’ In Why I haven’t killed myself’, under the direction of Stella Majewsky, they are getting comfortable with a theatre that believes in the audience as much as in their own power.

What transpires is a hilarious, provocative, but ultimately inspiring play that takes an honest look at depression and suicide but most importantly the many reasons why this beautiful life is worth living.