From a company renowned for producing original Irish theatre,‘The Pride Of Parnell Street’ has quickly become a firm favourite for critics at home and abroad, and now the Fishamble-produced play is set for its Limerick debut at The Belltable.

Written by Sebastian Barry, ‘The Pride Of Parnell Street’ is under the directorship of Jim Culleton, also the company’s Artistic Director. Celebrating their twentieth anniversary this year, Fishamble had within two years cemented their own mandate, which, in Jim’s words, means they “just do new work and new plays.”

Mary Murray and Karl Shiels in Fishamble's ‘The Pride of Parnell Street’.

‘The Pride…’ stemmed from work Sebastian had done with the company a few years back:  “In 2005, Amnesty International approached us to produce something as part of their campaign stop violence against women. Sebastian wrote a short play for it.
It was such a rich story that we felt it was a good idea to make a longer version,” explains Jim Culleton. “The play is really beautiful; it’s very moving and very funny as well, so you do hope that people will share your love of it.”

With the development of the script, the process became that bit more collaborative, as Sebastian would fire instalments back and forth, which Jim admits helped develop a trust between writer and director, although he does add that Sebastian “has a great feel for how theatre works anyway.”

Given the impetus for starting the script day one, the play unsurprisingly delves into the tricky issue of domestic violence. Set in 1999, ‘The Pride of Parnell Street’ harks back to a time in our recent Irish history, which still seems so long ago. Its characters ‘Janet’ are ‘Joe’ are set to meet up after their separation almost a decade previously.

Yet, despite Joe’s moments of madness, Jim acknowledges that there is a bond between the two, and they are both characters that we can sympathise with instead of chastise. “They have a really strong love for each other still, but are separated. He never had a proper job, so she calls him a ‘midday man’, because that’s when he usually gets up!” says Jim.

“I think when you look at ‘Joe’ at first, he is in a pretty bad way; he is the kind of guy you would cross the street to avoid! I love that people change what they think of them (Janet and Joe) as the play progresses. It also helps that the two actors are really wonderful.”

The two in question are Karl Shiels and Mary Murray. Both had previous experience with Fishamble: “We did some short plays called ‘Whereabouts’ a few years ago, and Karl actually directed one of them. For this one, I definitely had him in mind; he took part in a reading, and it was obvious that he was right for the role.