2013 NATIONAL TOUR
Fishamble: The New Play Company
LITTLE THING, BIG THING
By Donal O’Kelly
Commissioned by Fishamble in partnership with the Strollers Touring Network, Donal O’Kelly, one of Ireland’s foremost socially engaged playwrights, pulled out all the stops in a stream-of-consciousness thriller.
In Nigeria, a frightened child put an old roll of film into the hands of Dublin-bound teacher Sister Martha. In Dublin, ex-con Larry, with a wounded backside, had to get out of the city to rob a convent. Meanwhile, Scarab Oil planned to unleash its new “fuel of the future”. The film roll Sister Martha carried attracted the urgent interest of some very powerful and ambitious people.
Sorcha Fox and Donal O’Kelly played Martha and Larry who together took a high octane jump into the brutal world of international energy skulduggery, awakening passions they thought were long behind them.
‘director Jim Culleton’s enjoyable production can effectively do no wrong…O’Kelly finesses this deceptively breezy, carefully constructed story with his signature imagistic, action-oriented approach to language…Fox and O’Kelly’s winning double act…a little subversive, but that effect can be big enough’
★★★★
Irish Times
'impressive...impeccable.... a cloak-and-dagger comedy with a pure but unsentimental heart and a social conscience…Ms. Fox slips in and out of the characters she draws with crisp outlines and fills in with fine details. Mr. O’Kelly(’s) chameleonic talents are impressive…an ending that stops you short, right before it makes you think'
New York Times
‘exciting…directed with astutely controlled frenzy by Jim Culleton…it’s a pleasure’
Huffington Post
‘an enjoyable fast paced play that never lets you catch your breath.. The writing is impressive in this new work and there are many great comedic moments contained within… There are some great characters in the mix, with the Dublin junkie living long in the mind. It’s far fetched and fun, played at a lightning pace… if it’s light hearted fun with a touch of madness you’re after, it’s here in spades.’
NoMoreWorkHorse
'dynamic, linguistically inventive thriller...a finely executed piece of political theatre...funny and madcap'
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST
‘funny, moving and profound by turns…one of the most enjoyable plays I’ve seen at the Fringe’
SCOTSMAN