The Plains of Enna
Written by Pat Kinevane Directed by Jim Culleton
This play is a volcanic tale of love, betrayal and revenge. Set during 1967, the production featured an original opera score by John McKeown.
The Denis family lives on a small farm at Bellard. The Powers live in Enna House. The two families have been feuding for a generation. But life is lived at a safe distance from each other. Nina Denis cleans for the Vanderpools and eats plenty of celery for her arthritis. Kora Denis is learning Italian for when she visits her sister in Italy. Séamar Denis sometimes goes the colour of Betty Skully’s cardigan. And everything stops for the angelus.
It all goes wrong when Hady Power rescues Kora Denis from an electric fence and an impetuous, forbidden love affair begins. Past rivalries, buried vendettas and troubled ghosts are resurrected on the Plains of Enna.
Pat Kinevane is a native of Cobh, County Cork. He has worked as an actor for the past with the Abbey and Peacock, the Gate, Druid, the Gaiety, Passion Machine, Pigsback, and Second Age. As well as performing in Ireland, he has travelled to Australia, Scotland, London, and America with touring productions. His first play, The Nun’s Wood, was commissioned and produced by Fishamble in 1998. It opened at project @ the mint, toured Ireland to critical acclaim, and won a BBC/Stewart Parker Trust Award for new writing. Pat developed The Plains of Enna, his second play, over two years with Fishamble.
Cast
Enda Oates
Enda Oates has a long association with Fishamble going back to 1999 when he appeared in Joseph O’Connor’s True Believers at Andrew Lane and its subsequent Irish tour and its run at The Tricycle London. Other Fishamble productions include, The Plains of Enna (Pat Kinevane), Whereabouts and Pilgrims in the Park by Jim O’Hanlon. Enda is delighted to be returning in Fishamble’s 30th year with this show.
At the Abbey Theatre, credits include, Curse of the Starving Class, The Corsican Brothers, Big Maggie, Colours, The Devil’s Disciple, St. Joan, A Child’s Christmas in Wales and Blinded by the Light amongst others. He played Prospero in Corcadorca’s open air production of The Tempest for Cork’s Year of Culture in 2006 and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice for Second Age.
Other theatre: Philadelphia Here I Come (Lyric/Gaeity Theatre), The Field (Gaeity), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well (Noel Pearson Productions/Gate Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Field Day) The Plough and The Stars (Young Vic), Studs/Buddleia (Passion Machine Project Arts/ Donmar Warehouse), Juno and the Paycock (Gate Theatre/Broadway), The Ha’penny Bridge (Point Theatre) , The Country Boy, The Chastitute (Ed. Farrell Prod) Further than the Furthest Thing (Hatch Theatre , Project Arts).
In 2015 Enda won Best Actor IFTA for his role as Pete Ferguson in the RTÉ production Fair City.
Radio credits include, The Hit List, written and directed by John Boorman, Charlois, Ma (Elaine Murphy), Goodnight Irene (Jenifer Johnson) and The Thriller Series, Grave Danger amongst others.
Film and Television: Secret Scripture (Voltage Productions), Striking Out (Blinder Films), Glenroe, Upwardly Mobile (RTE), Tri Sceal, Wrecking the Rising (TG4), Moone Boy (Sky 1), Raw, Rebellion 2 (RTE), Val Falvey, Superhero (Grand Pictures), The Bailout (TV3), Stardust (Media Films), Ordinary Decent Criminal (Littlebird), An Everlasting Piece (Dreamworks), Eden (Samson Films) and Damo & Ivor (Granno Productions).
Productions
Creative Team
Pat Kinevane
Pat is native of Cobh, County Cork. He has worked as an Actor in Ireland for the past 37 years. He began to write for the stage in 1997 and completed his first full length play The Nun’s Wood, which won a BBC Stewart Parker Trust Award in 1998 and was produced by Fishamble Theatre Company. Fishamble then produced his second play The Plains of Enna which premiered at the 1999 Dublin Theatre Festival. Since then, Pat has written a series of Five Solo Theatre pieces, namely Forgotten, Silent, Underneath, Before and King – all produced by Fishamble.
In 2016 with Fishamble, Pat won a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance and writing of Silent and a Helen Hayes award in Washington DC for the same show in 2019. He has performed all Five pieces to huge acclaim throughout Ireland and Scotland, in London, Liverpool, Wales, Paris, Prague, Romania, Turkey, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Serbia, Iceland, Belgium, Croatia, Bulgaria, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth in Australia, Auckland and Christchurch New Zealand, across India, New York, Washington DC, Boston, Cleveland and eight full seasons in Los Angeles.
Film and TV acting credits include: Shoe (Oscar shortlisted 2011) King Arthur, Holding (ITV) Can’t Cope Won’t Cope, A Mother’s Love’s a Blessing, Black Day at Blackrock, Headrush, Beckett on Film, The Informant, When Brendan met Trudy, The Run of the Country, Far and Away, Mystics, The General, Ella Enchanted, A Soldier’s Song, Little Hoodie, Right now Ladies and Gents, My Dinner With Oswald, The Countess Cathleen, Vicious Circle, Ballykissangel, Glenroe, Fair City, Upwardly Mobile and The Late Late Show Murder Mystery.
For The Abbey Theatre his work includes : Good Evening Mr Collins, The Colleen Bawn, Dancing at Lughnasa (also at The Sydney Opera House), By the Bog of Cats, The Broken Jug, Sheep’s Milk on the Boil, The Rivals, Drama at Inish, The Chirpaun, Monkey and Three Laws of Motion.
For The Gate Theatre: The Home Place, Waiting for Godot, Salome, As You Like It, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Christmas Carol, Sharon’s Grave, She Stoops to Conquer, Arms and the Man, London Assurance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Thrupenny Opera, Not I, Act Without Words 2, and What Where.
Pat has appeared in Carthaginians for Druid, Studs for Passion Machine, Electra for B*spoke, Baby Jane for Corn Exchange, Translations for Lyceum Edinburgh, The Field and The Risen People at the Gaiety (plus numerous Pantos there), and three seasons with Team Theatre. In 2005 Pat played the title role of Roy Keane in the hit musical, I,Keano.
Productions
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.