Aaron Monaghan's new role reminds him of Cavan

When the Celt caught up with Cavan actor Aaron Monaghan he is in the middle of rehearsals for his latest Abbey Theatre role.

The Cave, written by Kevin Barry, is described as an “unforgettable black comedy” as it follows the chaotic lives of the McRae brothers, Archie and Bopper, holed up in the mountains of south Sligo, dodging the law.

He stars alongside Tommy Tiernan and Judith Roddy in the production directed by Catríona McLaughlin.

“I think there's a lot of Cavan in this play actually,” the county town man revealed. “Stuff kind of comes up from rehearsals that reminds you of things, I've been having a lot of memories about Cavan during this rehearsal process.”

Set in a small town in Sligo, Aaron explains how the characters and references will resonate with people from Cavan.

Flashbacks

He himself has had flashbacks to his time growing up in Killygarry, where he moved to age 10.

“It's not a million miles away from our own experience in Cavan. There's a lot of slagging off Leitrim in the show so I'd say, just for that alone, it's worth the price of a ticket,” he laughed.

Jokes aside, a mammoth amount of work has gone into getting the 13-scene play ready for the stage.

“Obviously Tommy Tiernan is playing my brother in the show, and I don't think I have to tell anybody in the country how talented and how funny he is.

“The craic between us had been really lovely, very gentle and supportive.”

Respect

Meanwhile Aaron describes writer Kevin Barry as “one of the greatest living” working today.

“I absolutely love his work; it definitely speaks to me as a man of that kind of age [mid 40s]. He writes particularly well about the Irish male psyche and the play is about that and about men who grew up in small rural towns and how they can kind of get forgotten about and what can happen to them.

“You know when life doesn't necessarily go according to plan... he writes really beautifully about that stuff and he makes it very, very funny and recognisable.”

Aaron believes audiences will “laugh their heads off” while the production will also serve as a “sucker punch to the guts”.

The Cave runs in the Abbey Theatre at 7:30pm, Monday to Saturday, plus some matinees until July, 18.

For tickets and information visit www.abbeytheatre.ie