Photo Ros Kavanagh
Where: Streaming Online
Ticketing: €12 including €1 booking fee for access to all episodes.
Now available on demand until midnight Sunday, August 29th on www.panpantheatre.com
The Mespil Estate is the rather grand name for a collection of apartment blocks that are just over Leeson Street bridge in Dublin, at the corner of Mespil road and Sussex Terrace. Pan Pan has created a new collection of short films based around the apartments and a number of fictional artists that live within.
The cast includes many actors who are regulars in Pan Pan’s stage work, including Andrew Bennett, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Tadhg Murphy, Anna Shiels McNamee, Ashley Xie and Karim Tamu. Each of the four short films lasts about 15 minutes and focus on a different resident of the block. We follow them on an average day in their life. We meet a voice actor called Aidan (Andrew Bennett) who is planning the perfect meal. He is in search of an elusive ingredient that is near impossible to find. Tadhg Murphy and Anna Shiels McNamee play a Goth couple, bringing up their son Rory in the tiny space. Another is based around an Architect (Ned Dennehy) drinking at home alone and raging against the world for his missed opportunities. The final episode is based around an African musician, played by Karim Tamu, who is visited by his intrusive neighbour Olive (Olwen Fouéré). While each film focuses on one character, the actors from the other films often turn up creating a full world!
The Director of photography/ Editor for these films is Ros Kavanagh, who we would normally associate with stage photography. He is the photographer for many of the theatre productions around Ireland. It is impressive to see him expand his horizons. The first episode was also available in 360 video, so you could become immersed in the world of the character.
These films are continued evidence that the line continues to blur between film and theatre during this pandemic. While Pan Pan is very much a theatre company, these works are film and would not work on the stage. As the lockdown continues to ease and theatres start to open around the country, it will be fascinating to see what the theatre companies do with these new skills. It would be interesting to see Pan Pan (or another theatre company) produce their first feature film!
Photo Ros Kavanagh
Cast – Andrew Bennett, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouéré, Rian Murphy, Tadhg Murphy, Anna Sheils-McNamee, Karim Tamu and Ashley Xie
Creatives –
Writer: Eugene O’Brien
Director: Gavin Quinn
Production Design: Aedín Cosgrove
Director of Photography and Editor: Ros Kavanagh
Consultant Editor: Naomi Geraghty
Composition / Sound Designer / Editor: Jimmy Eadie
Assistant Director: Grace Morgan
Executive Producer: Triona Ni Dhuibhir
Line Producer: Emma Coen
No More Workhorse 