Bellow – Project Arts Centre – Review
by Frank L

Bellow – Written by Feidlim Cannon, Gary Keegan and Danny O’Mahony

Cannon and Keegan are the driving force behind “Broken Talkers”, a theatrical production company, who have for more than a decade made, according to their website, “formally ambitious work that defies categorization”. Their work “draws on the skills and experiences of a large and diverse group of contributors from different disciplines and backgrounds”. In this instance that “skill” and  “experience” is provided by Danny O’Mahony an accordionist from North Kerry, Ballyduff in particular.  An “accordionist” is an inadequate description of him. His importance lies in that he is the repository of many generations of accordion players whose skills have been handed down through the years by one skilled accordionist to a younger one. He is the latest to have emerged in that honourable tradition.

Keegan and Cannon’s skills are inspired by creating theatrical pieces which use all sorts of ingredients from a variety of sources. Here they bring together O’Mahony’s traditional skills with their innovative skills to create a harmonious whole. In this endeavour, they shrewdly add a dancer Emily Kilkenny Roddy. Dance lies close to the heart of traditional Irish music but what Roddy adds is far more wide-ranging than traditional Irish dancing.

The set consists of a red curtain which hangs from floor to ceiling on the back wall. In front of it is a simple platform on which sits three accordions. There is a space for a fourth. On one side of the stage is a rectangular board which will subsequently reveal itself as a table. On the other side there is a small table on which there is a laptop. Apart from the red curtain, the stage including the floor is imbued with a subtle green hue.

The piece begins with Keegan and O’Mahony, bearing a fourth accordion, explaining their first meeting in a Dublin hotel and detailing the many things that divided their artistic practices. Here they repeat those differences standing poles apart and addressing the audience. It is a fine comic opening. O’Mahony then tells the audience about the history of each of the accordions. Here is a consummate artist at work. But his own story in relation to the accordion has to be told and that has a checkered element within it. Roddy’s dance facility is used to highlight those elements and manages to re-invent O’Mahony as a 10-year-old child prodigy accordionist. Meanwhile, Keegan metamorphoses by use of a gun and holster and a stick-on moustache to create a more sinister character from O’Mahony’s past as well as providing a running commentary on the proceedings.

By use of their very varied skills and aptitudes O’Mahony, Keegan and Roddy keep this somewhat wacky but innovative piece firmly on track. O’Mahony, magnificent accordionist that he is, is a joy to listen to as he plays but his comic timing and delivery in the opening sequence with Keegan shows that he has more than a one-trick pony. The piece rightly lauds the accordion as an integral part of Irish traditional music. On a more general level, it explains there is a time span to each person’s artistic endeavour. Each artist has to deal with that reality which is a challenge. These three artists however are still at the height of their powers and their collaboration to create this engaging piece of theatre enhances each of them.

As often with a new piece a little pruning might intensify the experience but that is a minor quibble. However, taken in the round Broken Talkers can add with pride this enjoyable piece to its list of theatrical successes. The piece in a most untraditional way is a hymn of praise to the accordion in the Irish music tradition