'The Man in the Woman's Shoes' at Nenagh Arts Centre
‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’ is a play that will leave you uplifted and in love with life again.
The action unfolds one day in October 1978. Pope John Paul I is not long dead,
autumn is closing in and farmer-cum-cobbler Pat Farnon, a man who lives alone
and is self-sufficient, has ‘some business’ to do in town.
‘The Man In The Woman’s Shoes’ follows Pat as he walks the five miles from his
small cottage to town and back and introduces the various colourful folk he meets along the way. While Pat may be an ageing man, he still has a boundless enthusiasm for life.
The play is hilariously funny, tender and so true to life you feel you know the people he is talking about. Written and performed by Mikel Murfi, this warm,
funny, and tender play was nominated for Best New Play in The Irish Times Theatre Awards and greeted with glowing reviews. Now in its third year of touring, it has been enjoyed by audiences throughout Ireland and recently
returned from a month run at the Irish Arts Centre in New York and Philadelphia. It also received a three week run at the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The play started out as a commission from the Sligo Arts Office in 2012.
Murfi said: “They were looking for an artist to engage with a number of groups of older people they were working with, retirement groups, and so on.” So Murfi went out and talked to these groups about their lives and asked them to tell him “auld yarns” and stories. He then tuck himself up in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre artists’ retreat in Co Monaghan and turned their stories into a one-man show. He returned to the groups to give them back their stories, but this time told by him. “The delight for me in rehearsing the show was meeting the old people and having conversations and cups of tea in halls around Sligo county. I wanted to generate a character who was very simple and ordinary; there are lots of lives lived around us that are very straightforward, simple lives that might not have a lot of drama. Pat Farnon is a man who just mends shoes and
sometimes makes shoes, I didn’t want him to be flash in any way.” says Mufi.
Winner of the Stewart Parker/BBC Northern Ireland Radio Drama Award 2013 Produced by Loco and Reckless-productions, ‘The Man in the Woman’s Shoes’ will be performed at Nenagh Arts Centre on Thursday November 26th at 8pm. Tickets €12/€16 more information at www.nenagharts.com