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The auditions at the London Irish Centre. |
Hopefuls face TV-style panel for musical about Irish Easter Rising
IT is billed as the Irish Les Miserables, an epic musical forged from “divine inspiration” that will take five years to get to the stage and cost millions of pounds.
The story of Dublin’s famous Easter Rising and the subsequent execution of the Republican rebels is to be enhanced with a jig and song in 1916: The Musical.
But there are no West End impresarios, Michael Flatleys or other Celtic Tigers at the helm of this grandiose scheme.
Instead, the visionaries are a Camden primary school teacher and a half-Irish lighting designer.
This week, hundreds of hopeful thespians aged from 16-60 flocked to the London Irish Centre in Camden Square for a chance to – in the words of the tagline – “relive the nightmare” and “believe the dream” of 1916.
Casting for the musical proper, scheduled to be performed in the Irish capital in 2011, will be decided in 2010 by traditional auditions and a TV talent show “with a historical twist”, where competitors will have to live in 1916 conditions.
At lunchtime on Tuesday, young singers milled about the centre’s holding area waiting to audition for the musical’s advance promotional album.
Sean Ferris, a 39-year-old professional lighting designer whose theatrical highlights include producing “three successful pantomimes”, claims divine inspiration led him to write the 35-part musical.
“I had it in my head for 17 years,” he said. “I knew I wanted to write about 1916 but I didn’t know why that date was significant.
“When you’re producing something so sacred to the Irish it’s important to get it right. We’re trying to be as unbiased as possible. There’s a lot of jukebox revivals. It’s time for people to see something original and fresh.”
The musical will cost “an undisclosed figure somewhere under £10million” to stage, according to Mr Ferris, and the funding is similarly mysterious.
He added: “It’s private sources – definitely not the IRA. I can’t tell you who – just say I’m confident.”
Mr Ferris first collaborated with the musical’s librettist, Simon Humphreys, on the fringe play Subtransmission at Islington’s Courtyard Theatre in 2007.
Mr Humphreys, a peripatetic Camden school teacher for children with behavioural problems, said 1916 was about “people trying to fight for their dreams as well as a nation trying to fight for their independence”.
Irish historians have so far been politely cautious of the production, which weaves a fictional love story into the culturally sensitive events around the uprising.
“I would welcome anything that brings attention to 1916 as long as it proves to be historically accurate,” Sean Whelan of the National Graves Association told the Irish News in July.
Amadin Ryan, executive producer for the musical’s 20-part tie-in TV talent show, said the show would be “a cross between The Choir, the search for Maria and
X Factor”, adding: “The working title is Stars in the Rising.”
The celebrity judges planned for the show had not been contracted yet but would be “faces”, said Mr Ryan.
Katie Moorhouse, 21, from Angel, heard about the auditions on a casting website.
She said: “I imagine the score is quite similar to Les Mis. My voice suits ballady stuff.” |
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