Rex Ryan

Pilgrim takes gonzo on journey of discovery

Damian McCarney


What do you ask about a play you’ve never seen, and of which you know zilch? Gonzo’s about to premier a new play, Pilgrim, and the morsels offered up in the bite-size blurb don’t extend much beyond: ‘September 11, 2001, thousands of refugees from every culture and creed descend upon the doorsteps of Newfoundland. Villages, like Gambo, become the setting for a positive apocalypse.’
As a consequence, Pilgrim’s star, Rex Ryan, son of the late Gerry Ryan, and the Celt are stumbling through a peculiar verbal dance. He’s reluctantly taking the lead and the Celt’s apologising for treading on his toes. He takes a step forward, disclosing a thread of the plot before jinking two steps back wondering if he’s revealed too much. For all that, it’s a merry dance in the hands of a young but accomplished actor.
With ‘refugees’ and ‘apocalypse’ in the play’s blurb, the Celt wonders if it is set in a post-apocalyptic world?
“Did you think it was some sort of dystopian universe?” the Dubliner rolls the question around his mouth.
“It’s not a sort of Mad Max...” he laughs, good-naturedly. “Basically, the places like Gambo became a kind of refuge, even for just a couple of days it turned into a cultural melting pot and people from all over the world ended up mixing. It’s the reverberations from 9/11 that effect the world - I think that’s the use of the word apocalyptic.
“And really, that was the feeling from the time when that happened. There was an apocalyptic fear. Two planes crashed in, but there was the impending fear that another 100 planes could have crashed anywhere, which led to people thinking almost, is this going to turn into a dystopian world of explosions? And has something been planned? So, maybe he was alluding to a tone.” Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.

Forces take control
Gambo isn’t some sort of Kurt Vonnegut creation - it actually is a Newfoundland village near Gander airport nearby. Apparently on September 11, 2001, a total of 239 planes were forced to land in Canada - for fear of them falling victim to hijackers. Half of those planes landed into Gander, leaving 7,000 passengers disembarking in a town of less than 10,000 and no-one knowing how long they’d be stranded there. School buses ferried the stranded air passengers to surrounding towns, such as Gambo, which welcomed 1,160 of them, swelling the population by 50%.
It is in such circumstances that Rex’s character, Christopher, finds himself. Added to the commotion is the fact that Christopher’s girlfriend has just given birth to his son.
“It is the redirection to Gambo... that is almost like the forces take control, and that is where the drama starts.”
From here, Pilgrim explores Christoper’s “journey of maturity”, as Rex succinctly puts it.
Rex agrees that, from an acting perspective, “there’s never an easy Gonzo play ever”.
“Ever,” he emphasises.
Pilgrim’s problem? It’s a one-man show and Rex has multiple characters to portray. The Celt wonders if alone on a stage, under the gaze of hundreds of theatre-goers, watching you recall an entire script isn’t the loneliest place imaginable?
“It’s not,” he assures. “There’s a big team involved, so it’s not like it’s just me. Which is nice as well for me from a psychological point of view. We’ve got a really, really good team and everyone has a very specific job.” He proceeds to list the director, the lighting designer and stage manager and all they bring to the table.

Alone
But when the curtain falls and Rex alone has been tasked with enthralling the audience, is the pay-off all the better?
“I’ve never done a one-man show,” he says with a laugh. “I hope so! I hope so!”
Rex will be familiar to those who have seen recent Gonzo productions ‘The Birthday Man’ and ‘Circus of Perseverance’. He’s built up a rapport with playwright Philip Doherty akin to Enda Walsh and Cillian Murphy - Rex has become Philip’s ‘go-to’ actor. The Cavanman wrote Pilgrim with Rex in mind. Did he find that an honour, or onerous, or both?
“Yeah a big honour, and [I’m] happy, and flattered. And to premier one of his plays and for him to have written it with me in mind.
“I think he had a character in mind, so the character would be paramount, but if he had me in mind he possibly would be trying to write to what he thought were my strengths. But like I say, because I’m very close to Phil, it’s all very collaborative.”
It’s actually become a three-way collaboration with Philip handing directorial responsibilities over to Aoife Spillane-Hinks. “Her dramatic vision is a very, very original one,” praises Rex.
He describes Aoife as a “problem solver” in realising “abstract moments” in the play.
Rex says she’s getting the best out of him: “She tries to spark my ideas as opposed to just being didactic and saying do this do that, she’ll maybe just plant a thought in my head and tell me to go think about it and then I’ll get ideas from that. Intelligent directors make the actors feel smart - that’s what she does.”

Fringe
While Rex insists that Pilgrim has “a lot of the trademark Gonzo elements” he believes that this is a departure for Philip as it offers an in-depth character portrait of Christopher - “a much more acutely focused story”.
The Cavan performances run for three nights in Cavan Town Hall before it proceeds to the Dublin Fringe Festival (September 10-18, excluding 15) - it’ll be Gonzo’s third production at the Fringe.
“We’re on Smock Alley main stage so it’s a step up for the Gonzo this year. We’ve sold out the last two fringes we’ve been in - completely sold out, so I think the Fringe have sort of rewarded us by giving us the main stage. Last year, we only had a capacity of maybe 80 people for the Birthday Man and this year we’re going to be performing for 220 if it’s full. So I think Gonzo is starting to get recognition, and Philip is starting to get recognition as a brilliant writer.”

Pilgrim plays Dublin Fringe Festival's Smock Alley Theatre on September 10-14; and September 16-18 at 6.30pm. Booking at http://fringefest.com/programme/pilgrim.