Written by: by Donal O’Kelly
Starring: Andrew Musselman
Directed by: Geoff Gould
Assistant Director: Shane Ward
Costume Designer: Olivia Monaghan
Lighting Design: Elizabeth Powell
The award-winning play Catalpa follows the true story of a band of Fenians and their audacious prison break from the colonial prison in Freemantle, Australia.
While the story takes place in 1875, we see it unfold through the eyes of Mathew Kidd, a present-day screenwriter whose lifelong dream is to make a movie based on the rescue mission. Full of intrigue, suspense and a tour-de-force solo performance in which one actor plays over twenty different characters including, a seagull, a whale and a storm!
Running Time: 90 minutes with interval
Reviews:
“Catalpa, the greatest movie never made.”
“Magic!”
★★★★
Critic’s PickNow Magazine
“Wonderfully Inventive!”
★★★★
Toronto Sun
Playwright & Cast:
Donal O’Kelly | Playwright
Donal O’Kelly is a writer and actor. His much-travelled solo plays include the award-winning Catalpa (Edinburgh Fringe First, London Time Out Critics’ Choice, Best Event Melbourne International Festival), Bat The Father Rabbit The Son (Best Writer and Best Actor nominations Irish Theatre Awards), and Jimmy Joyced! (Best Actor nomination Irish Theatre Awards)
His play The Cambria, about Frederick Douglass’ voyage to Ireland in 1845, performed with Sorcha Fox, toured Ireland, as well as playing the UK and Los Angeles. Vive La, a 1798 spy story mummer play, toured Ireland in 2007, and was revived in the Project in 2008. Running Beast, his music-theatre piece with music by Michael Holohan, has toured Europe since its premiere in September 2007.
Other plays include The Dogs (Rough Magic), Hughie On The Wires, Trickledown Town, The Business Of Blood, Farawayan, (all Calypso) Asylum! Asylum! (Peacock, Traverse Edinburgh, Ottawa and Boston), Mamie Sighs, Judas Of The Gallarus (Peacock) and The Hand (Dublin Theatre Festival).
He has twice been awarded an Irish Arts Council literature bursary, and in 1999 was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute Butler Literary Award. He set up Donal O’Kelly Productions in 2000, and has toured extensively at home and abroad since then. As an actor, his film roles include leading roles in Roddy Doyle’s The Van and in the acclaimed bilingual film Kings, Brainer in Spin The Bottle and Funny Face in I Went Down.
On stage, he has played the Lincoln Centre New York with Beckett’s Act Without Words I, Toronto Winter Garden as Lucky in Waiting For Godot, Joxer in the Abbey Theatre’s Juno And The Paycock, Sean O’Casey in Colm Toibin’s Beauty In A Broken Place at the Peacock, and he has toured to the UK, Europe, the US, Canada and Australia with his Donal O’Kelly Productions plays.
He was a founder and for ten years until 2003 a director of Calypso Productions, and he is an associate director of the peace and justice organisation Afri. In 2007 he was elected to Aosdana.
Andrew Musselman | Actor
Born and raised in Toronto, Andrew Musselman trained as an actor for three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in England. In addition to his numerous television credits and commercial and voice-over work, Andrew has acted in theatres in Ireland, England and across Canada.
For Blood in the Alley, Andrew has played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Irish Tour), as well as the one-man show Catalpa (Canada and Ireland). Other theatre credits include Jonathan in Greenland (Summerworks Festival, Toronto), Charlie in Stones in His Pockets (Globe Theatre, Regina).
Currently, Andrew is branching out into the world of comedy writing. He is one of the founding members of the production company “Peephole Theatre”.
Dates & Venues:
Catalpa was performed in 2013 at:
17th January – 2nd February | Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto | www.passemuraille.on.ca
West Cork Fit-up Theatre Festival, 2014
19th August | Community Hall, Ballydehob | More details
West Cork Fit-up Theatre Festival, 2011
2nd August | Island Cottage Gallery, Irisland
3rd August | Community Hall, Kilcrohane
4th August | Community Hall, Ballydehob
5th August | Community Hall, Sherkin Island
6th August | Community Hall, Lisavaird
7th August | Rerrin, Bereisland
West Cork Fit-up Theatre Festival, 2010
3rd August | Island Cottage Gallery, Irisland
4th August | Club Cléire, Cape Clear
5th August | Community Hall, Kilcrohane
6th August | Community Hall, Sherkin Island
7th August | Community Hall, Ballydehob
8th August | Rerrin, Bereisland
