Playboyz
Dublin Theatre Festival, The New Theatre, Sep 16- Oct 1, 2017.
Cast: Amy Conroy, John Cronin, Kwaku Fortune, Rebecca Guinnane, Conor Madden, Solomon Osho.
Writer & Director: Martin Sharry
Lighting Design: Eoin Winning
Costume & Set Design: Deirdre Dwyer
Stage Manager: Hannah O'Reilly
Producer: Michelle Cahill
Dramaturg: Vukasin Nedeljkovic
Photographer: Jaesin Yu
Playboyz is a re-imagining of JM Synge’s Playboy of the Western World. Synge says ‘on the stage, there must be joy, and there must be reality’. The Irish mix of the craic and the tragic continues but breaks from authority and tradition. This is a play about seeking asylum. It is a play about Irishness. It stays true to the wild spirit of the original, in its questioning of the whole idea of transformation.
There are moments that genuinely shine during Playboyz but these get lost in the absurd metatheatricality of the piece. Under Sharry’s direction the ensemble cast (Amy Conroy, John Cronin, Kwaku Fortune, Rebecca Guinnane, Conor Madden, Solomon Osho) give solid performances, with some excellent characterisations. There are plenty of individual pieces that work, such as Solomon Osho’s poetic recitation, but these don’t amalgamate in any meaningful way. Its self-awareness arguably becomes its own undoing, which is an apt reflection on modern society in and of itself. Though it is not without merit and laughs along the way, it feels needlessly complex and loses momentum at times.
- David Keane, Reviews Hub.
On / Off
Project Arts Centre, Oct 25, 2019.
Staged reading of a work-in-progress. Inspired by Martin's experience of Parkinson's.
SHAMBLES
Scene + Heard Festival, Smock Alley, Feb 16, 2019.
Staged reading of a work-in-progress. Intellectual panto on narcissism.
Running+Walking in the Phoenix Park
Dublin Fringe Festival, Project Arts Centre, Sept 12 -22, 2018.
Performer: John Morton
Live music: Rachel Ní Chuinn
A man is running for his life. Running helps the brain to regenerate. Over time, he forgets himself. He grows more interested in the trees, the history, the life of the park. A conversation with a horse chestnut reveals the nature of healthy being.
Then he stops.
Slowly, he starts again…
A poetic meditation is inspired by something beyond the ego with live musical accompaniment from Rachel Ní Chuinn and original video projection by Francis Matthews, drawing you into the restorative ambience and rhythm of nature.
Supported by The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon. Developed at Scene + Heard 2017.
Photo: Naomi Goodman
Video: Francis Matthews
Set Design and Costume: Deirdre Dwyer
Lighting Design: Eoin Winning
Dramaturg: Dr Emily DeDakis
Producer: Michelle Cahill
'Multimedia drama on traversing Dublin’s municipal space has absorbing elements' - Irish Times
Boxes
Tulca, Galway Arts Centre, Nov 3- 19, 2016.
A collection of cardboard boxes. Dimensions variable.
Performer: Rebecca Guinnane
Videography by Francis Matthews
Marky Mac Sherry Tells It Like It Is
Tiger Dublin Fringe, The New Theatre, Sep 7-12, 2015.
A one man show that plays with the failing persona of a stand-up comic. Marky tells profoundly bad jokes about sex, death and the media.
Nominee for Spirit of the Fringe and for the Judges' award: 'Marky MacSherry Tells It Like It Is: For the intelligence and detail of its form, for Martin Sharry's disarming performance in the role of Marky'
"Transforming stand-up cliches into much more disconcerting inquiries into mortality." Peter Crawley, The Irish Times
The Impossible Address
Inis Oirr, Áras Éanna, Jun 23, 2015.
A collaboration between writer, director Martin Sharry and sound designer Brendan Rehill that occurred on Inis Oirr. They led a 'sound-walk' to the back of the island. The walk was designed to prime the audience for the show in Áras Éanna. There Tim Creed relayed text he received via headphones, while Brendan created a soundscape. It concluded with a post-show discussion.
Looking For Work
Project Arts Centre, Nov 25 - 29, 2014.
Cast: Barry O'Connor, Rebecca Guinnane, Tim Creed
By the means of non-acting or almost non-acting Neil, Alan and Sheila permit the watcher to create his or her own bedroom, stair case, doors, kitchen and whatever other visual paraphernalia is needed in our brains in order to imagine that which we cannot see. The result is that the undramatic delivery of the text in a space almost devoid of props by some miraculous process is dramatised and the tensions between the three intertwined individuals are exposed as if under a microscope. In order to achieve this non-acting the cast deliver a beautifully modulated ensemble performance. Looking for Work works. Well worth a visit.
Frank L, No More Workhorse
Without You I Am Nothing
Live Collision 2014
GIFT 2014
Live performance | Film | Essay
i.
A film where someone is followed making a full circuit of an island off the west coast of Ireland.
'One of his important texts is called Holzwege, which means a path which leads nowhere. To leave things open and radically inappropriable and then admitting that we haven’t really understood is much less satisfying, more frustrating and more necessary you know'
- Avital Ronnell on Martin Heidegger
ii.
An essay in pursuit of a subject, conscious of it being a text for performance as well as a stand alone piece of writing. It’s dynamic or drama generated from an awareness of that duality. Designed to avail of the context of the situation before making any argument for its existence.
iii.
A performer trying to be present.
I Am Martin Sharry
Cork Solstice, Jun 20 - 22, 2012.
Dublin Fringe, Smock Alley, Sep 18 - 22, 2012.
Galway Townhall Theatre, Feb 21 - 23, 2013.
A one man show about three Martin Sharrys. My uncle, my grandfather and I all co-existed under the same roof for one summer. That's the starting point for looking at disconnection, broken tradition and the solace of art. There's the loss of the Irish language, shame around mental health issues and the celebration of Outsider Art.
Sharry is a liminal creature inhabiting liminal spaces. As is his one man show, I Am Martin Sharry, which bravely inhabits the spaces between many worlds including those of theatre, poetry, prose and performance art. The result is not always sharp or engaging, it may not always allure or seduce, but in its stark, brave and disturbing honesty, its effect lingers long after you’ve left the theatre.
Chris O'Rourke, www.examiner.com
Walking + Talking History
Ennis Street Theatre Festival, Jun 23, 2011.
A free guided tour of things to see in Ennis where the history was half improvised and half misappropriated. Talked about Daniel O'Connell as a baby while lost in a car park. That sort of thing. Embarrassing really. Daniel O' Connell wasn't lost in a car park, when he was a baby, as far I know.
Dreams Of Love
Dublin Fringe, Smock Alley, 2011.
Side-Show Productions
"The overall quality of the Fringe this year has been of a very high standard and suddenly this twenty-something ‘larking about on stage‘ seems dated, and quite frankly unacceptable".
Nicole Flattery. www.meg.ie
King Alfred: A Mystery Play
Town Hall Theatre Galway 2011.
Side-Show Productions
Playwright Martin Sharry has long been interested in theatre that breaks the mould; his script here is highly original in its complex yet playful wit. The play offers a multi-layered theatrical experience - promoting a heightened awareness of self in the moment and revealing the arbitrary relations between life and its labels
Siobhan O'Gorman, Irish Theatre Magazine