'Is it John Joe's fragility or is it mine?'

The great Tom Hickey will reprise his internationally-acclaimed solo performance in Tom MacIntyre’s 'The Gallant John-Joe’ at Townhall Cavan on Saturday, 21 November.
Hickey’s performance has been praised by the New York Times as “masterly” and as “a performance of rare virtuosity” by Fintan O’Toole. This latest staging of his collaboration with Cavan playwright Tom MacIntyre is presented in conjunction with the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland. Tom, a patron of PAI, was diagnosed with the condition in 2013.
Once described by well-known Cavan actress Derbhle Crotty as “a hymn to Cavan English”, 'The Gallant John-Joe’ was first premiered in 2001, receiving multiple award nominations and critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. The play has enjoyed a hugely successful revival tour and this performance at Townhall Cavan is a rare opportunity to see it performed on home turf, all brought vividly to life by national treasure Tom Hickey.
The Celt’s PAUL FITZPATRICK spoke with Tom last week in the build-up to the eagerly-anticipated show.

Paul Fitzpatrick: How long have you been touring The Gallant John Joe, Tom?
Tom Hickey: This time round I’ve been doing it for two months. Originally the show opened in its last manifestation 12 years ago I think.

PF: How does it rank in terms of your favourite plays?
TH: It’s very near the top, it’s a wonderful script, [Tom] MacIntyre’s of course – pure Cavan lingo.

PF: The language in the script has been described as uniquely 'Breffnian’...
TH: MacIntyre says that the only place in the entire universe where Elizabethan English is used is Cavan. You’re looking at Shakespeare here.

PF: What sort of lines can those who have not seen the show expect?
TH: There were two actors who hadn’t seen the show before and they can’t believe it. They hear new lines every night. It’s 40 minutes, which is tough going for me these days, but it’s very near the top of the pile for a show that length in my view. The best ever.
PF: Tell me about your relationship with Tom MacIntyre.
TH: We first met in rehearsals in the Abbey for The Great Hunger, that was in 1983. We got on very well together and subsequently we worked together on and off.

PF: Would you agree that the script compares favourably with anything in this country in the last 30 years?
TH: It compares with anything at any time, in my view. Absolutely. It’s the language. There are phrases for instance in it that you used to hear in common speech which you don’t hear any more.

PF: How large does the figure of John Joe O’Reilly loom in the play?
TH: He [the protagonist] is John Joe Concannon and he keeps himself buoyant by memories of John Joe [O’Reilly]. I saw John Joe play in the county final in Newbridge, the Army versus Ardclough. The rumour is that that’s the day he got the injury. That’s not entirely certain but that’s what they say. But I saw that match.
The nearest reference as a player I could give you would be Franz Beckenbauer – he seemed to have all the time in the world when he got the ball. John Joe always placed the ball, high fielding, big man... He lived in Naas, where I’m from, for a while. His brother Frank had a chemist shop in Naas.

PF: People forget his connection with Kildare. He moved there aged 18 and was almost as much of a Kildare man as a Cavanman by the time of his death.
TH: (Laughs) I doubt that now!

PF: With the MacIntyre and John Joe O’Reilly connections, returning to Cavan is a sort of homecoming for this production in a way...
TH: I’m delighted to be back in Cavan. My Da brought me to see an All-Ireland, Cavan and Cork, Cork won. That was ’45. My Da got a saddle and put it on the crossbar of the bike and cycled from Naas to Inchicore with me on the bar. He left the bicycle in a shop in Inchicore, got the bus into town and up to Croke Park. A 20-mile cycle.

PF: Do you draw on those experiences when you’re on stage?
TH: Oh indeed, indeed. The memory of John Joe. JJ Concannon keeps referring to John Joe to boost his spirits.

PF: And the fact that John Joe is Cavan’s lost leader, cut down in his prime, adds an extra poignancy, I imagine?
TH: Oh, it does. MacIntyre played in goal for Cavan, he was right in the middle of everything.

PF: The play is in aid of a good cause and one that is close to your heart.
TH: The dreaded Parkinson’s.

PF: How are you of late?
TH: I wouldn’t say I have the stamina that I had and this is a very demanding piece. The script, as I say, is miraculously good. You’d have to do it credit which I try to do every time I do it. It’s not easy because the one thing Parkinson’s loves is stress and normally when you go on stage, there’s always a bit of stress beforehand, so you’ve got that to deal with.
MacIntyre says this production is 100 times better than the last one because it’s my own fragility allied to John Joe’s fragility. John Joe is on medication as well (laughs).
But he is really very pleased with this manifestation of it.

PF: How does it compare with the first run?
TH: What’s the right word? Shall we say, the original production – which was very successful – was more robust. The mystery about this production I feel is to do with the fragility you’re looking at with John Joe Concannon. Is it John Joe’s or is it mine? Which is it?
MacIntyre sees more fragility in the performance and he says it’s more rounded, has more depth etc, and it’s funnier as well. Because it is very funny.

PF: We would be familiar with the sort of 'spakes’ in the play here in Cavan.
TH (in character): So I moved to the hospital, the first time in me life I entered the like and for why? Bumps on me nuts if you don’t mind, and them could finish ya! I tould the doctor, lave them, fuck them, pawn them for thruppence ha’penny...

PF: Tom MacIntyre wrote the piece with you in mind. Why do you think that was?
TH: Because I asked him. There was a play called the Tierpaun, it was on in the Peacock. It didn’t quite do as well as it should have done in my view. But John Joe was in that and there were a few speeches in it, a few what I call arias, and I said to Tom, 'would you not write a one-man version of this?’. And he did and we worked on it for a year together. That would have been the late 90s, we worked on it for a year, I’d be up and down to Cavan. But just to go back to the Parkinson’s for a second, I’ve developed a connection with the Parkinson’s Association of Ireland. And part of the missionary part of doing this is to display to other people with Parkinson’s that you don’t have to sit in a chair all day looking at the ceiling. You can still do things, or try, maybe is a better word, try to do things. And I’m trying to do the Gallant John Joe.

PF: How long is it since you were diagnosed?
TH: Three years. It’s of a mild form but you have to take your medication and you have to have a routine for the day. Parkinon’s loves things like the flu. I got a virus last year and it was fearsome because as the senior urse in the hospital said, it loves a virus, it’ll make it 20 times worse. That’s part of the effect of it but you mustn’t give in to it. That’s part of this plot in conjunctioin with MacIntyre.
It has fed into the performance, that’s why MacIntyre is saying it’s a hell of a lot better than the last production because of the way we worked on it and are still working on it. That’s the mission. You don’t know which reality you’re dealing with and you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Neither do I sometimes.

Tickets

The play is in the Townhall Arts Space in Cavan on Saturday, November 21 at 8pm. Tickets are €18/€16 and available from Multisound on 049-4361312.