Are ya Dancin? Reliving Ireland’s Showband Era
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What is the show 'Are You Dancing?' about?
The Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk. Now, if you remember the Huckle book, you'll probably love the show that's coming to the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, starring my next guest. And if you don't remember the Huckle book, then now is your chance to learn all about Ireland's show band era. Carol Gleeson is one of the women behind the show. It's called Are You Dancing? And one of its stars is... is Carol, but alongside her is retired school principal and award-winning amateur actor Paul Meskell. And, as I say, hearts are trembling all over the country, not realising it's Meskell Pair rather than Meskell Peace.
Meskell Pair, yes. That's a first, yeah.
Who are the key figures behind 'Are You Dancing?'
And thank you for elevating me to principal. I didn't quite make it to the echelons of principal, so I'm a retired teacher, but thanks again.
Now, before we talk to you about your career, which is not, this is not a debut. You've been on the boards before. I want to talk to Carol about the show itself and how it came about.
Right. Well, Are You Dancing? A show band story. It's a play with music written by myself and my best friend, Helen Spring. It's set in 1960s Donegal during Ireland's vibrant show band era. And the story follows a young man by the name of Tommy O'Neill who a shy, unassuming young man who finds himself unwittingly at the helm of an up-and-coming show band. And as his star rises, we see his struggles, both professionally and personally, and all set against the cultural backdrop of 1960s Ireland.
I'm not trying to be complimentary or flattering, but you don't look like you live through the show band era yourself.
No, no, I didn't. So obviously the show required an awful lot of research. So myself and Helen now are too young to remember the days. But as you know, it's very recent history. So we had loads of firsthand accounts to draw from as part of our research. And we actually started at the very top with the late, great Jimmy McGee, who, as you know, was prolific during that era. He was a very close family friend of my husband's. So I had access to Jimmy for hours on end when it came about in 2018 when we had decided we wanted to write the play based in this era. And he was so excited about the concept. So Jimmy would sit back for hours and regale you with tales from every perspective, the industry side, the general side.
And then he'd stop every so often and belt out a verse of Make Me an Island. Even in a restaurant, he didn't care who was watching. And so... And also after Jimmy, we spoke to Sean Riley and his lovely wife, Olive, who are also very involved in the industry and then to all the locals. So there was loads of firsthand accounts we could draw from because it was very important to us that we portrayed the 1960s very authentically and very effectively in our play.
But what inspired you to write the play? I mean, what was the seed that told you this deserved some exposure?
Yeah, so we felt it was a relatively untapped topic in Irish theatre in general. And we had both grown up listening to our grandparents talk about stories of old. You know, the show band stories have become part of local folklore in every town and village across Ireland. But we had decided we wanted to write a play and we wanted it to involve music. So we literally took out the Irish history books, flicked back through all the recent decades and last two centuries and and stopped upon the show band era because it was so vibrant and so diverse and we just felt it offered us such amazing scope in terms of the social element the the cultural element the serious element and then also the fun element now so many ideas remain just gleams in the eye and never actually make it so to get it produced to actually get it out there
Yes, so that's where I suppose most writers face their greatest challenge. But Helen and I, two years previous, had formed our own arts production company to focus on, I suppose, female-driven theatre. So we had that in place. So when we wrote our play, instead of going to look for somebody else to do it, we decided to take on the challenge ourselves.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the show 'Are You Dancing?' about?
0:01–0:44
2
Who are the key figures behind 'Are You Dancing?'
0:44–4:25
3
What inspired the creation of the play set in the showband era?
4:25–8:04
4
How did the research process for the play unfold?
8:04–14:36
5
What challenges did the creators face in producing 'Are You Dancing?'
14:36–14:55