The Gist of It
Written by Rodney Lee Directed by Jim Culleton
The Gist of It is a new, fast, furious and wicked 90-minute drama of misunderstandings about three people who desperately want to be loved.
Film student Orla wants to complete her precious masterpiece, featuring a reluctant butterfly, before the weekend is through. But her love-sick lead, Liam, and her neurotic father, Gerard, seem determined to sabotage her genius.
Orla, Liam, Gerard and the butterfly are all scrambling for the perfect ending. Well, that’s the gist of it…
Following the huge success of Monged in 2005, Fishamble returns to the Dublin stage with another new play in its ‘Fishamble Firsts’ series. Rodney Lee is the winner of numerous screenwriting awards. The Gist of It is his first play.
Reviews
-
‘The Gist of It is a first play, part of Fishamble’s splendidly productive project of introducing new voices to the Irish theatre…well-honed sense of structure… ingenious designs…a good deal of well-worked fun… energised performances’
The Irish Times -
‘mastery of dialogue…knock out, funny lines…played with gusto ’
The Sunday Tribune -
‘a nugget of true-life comedy gold ’
RTE.ie -
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars
‘finely-tuned and thoroughly enjoyable’
The Sunday Business Post
Creative Team
Jim Culleton
Jim Culleton is the Artistic Director of Fishamble: The New Play Company, for which he has directed productions on tour throughout Ireland, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. His productions for Fishamble have won Olivier, The Stage, Scotsman Fringe First, and Irish Times Best Director awards.
Jim has also directed for the Abbey, the Gaiety, the Belgrade, 7:84 Scotland, Project, Amharclann de hÍde, Tinderbox, Passion Machine, the Ark, Second Age, Dundee Rep, CoisCéim/Crash Ensemble/GIAF, Frontline Defenders, Amnesty International, Little Museum of Dublin, Fighting Words, Soho Theatre, Scripts Festival, and Baptiste Programme. He has directed audio plays for Audible, BBC, RTÉ Radio 1, and RTÉ lyric fm. He has directed for Vessel and APA (Australia), TNL (Canada), Solas Nua, Mosaic, and Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Odyssey (LA), Origin, Irish Arts Center, New Dramatists, and 59E59 (Off-Broadway), as well as for Trafalgar Theatre Productions on the West End, and IAC/Symphony Space on Broadway. Jim has taught for NYU, NUI, GSA, Uversity, the Lir, Villanova, Notre Dame, UM, UMD, JNU, and TCD.
Productions
Sinéad McKenna
Sinéad McKenna is an internationally renowned designer working across theatre, opera, dance and film. She has won two Irish Times Theatre Awards for Best Lighting Design and a Drama Desk nomination for Best Lighting Design for a Musical.
Previous designs for Fishamble include Maz and Bricks, The Gist of It and Invitation to a Journey.
Her other recent designs include Walking with Ghosts, Straight To Video and The Approach (Landmark Productions), Maria Stuarda (Irish National Opera), Elsewhere and Faith Healer (Abbey Theatre), Dēmos (Liz Roche Company), Parade (Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris) and Angela’s Ashes: The Musical (Bord Gais/Tour).
She has designed for many notable companies including the Gate Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Donmar Warehouse, Cork Opera House, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Rough Magic, CoisCeim, Gúna Nua, Decadent, Gare Saint Lazare, Corn Exchange, Thisispopbaby, Siren, Second Age, Performance Corporation and Semper Fi.
Productions
Cast: Amy Conroy, Philip O’Sullivan, Paul Reid