When his daughter’s fiancé hasn't heard of Italia ‘90, a Marino father senses something is off

Upstairs in the Irish Writers Centre on Parnell Square, 50 or so theatre fans trickle into the Benedict Kiely Room, until they fill every seat.

Ahead is a rehearsed reading of playwright and novelist Michael J. Hartnett’s new work, Milano to Marino.

It’s part of the Five Lamps Arts Festival, running from 11 to 19 April.

The grand setting quickly transformed into the family living room of Peg and Fran, played by Pat Sullivan and Owen O’Gorman, and their last unmarried child, Susie, played by Heather Hennessy.

The cast was reunited, following their turn last November in Hartnett’s Tropical Fish in the Tolka, which ran for three weeks in Clontarf’s Viking Theatre.

There is a familiar dynamic from the outset of Milano to Marino.

It opens with Sullivan and O’Gorman playing a long-married couple in the midst of a good bicker. The performers have a warm chemistry.

Peg knows some major news about Susie. But, sworn to secrecy, all she can tell Fran is that there is something she can’t tell him.

The tension builds, with one more frustrated than the other.

Eventually, Peg cracks. 

Susie is to be married to an Italian waiter called Alfredo – who she only just met on a holiday.

“If only he had the bloody patience to wait a while,” Fran cracks.

Fran realises that he met Alfredo at a party recently, without copping the connection to his daughter.

The unimpressed father hints at something a bit off about this Italian.

When Fran tried to chat to him about Italia ’90, the young man had never heard of it.

Fran’s bewildered telling of the encounter brought laughs around the venue. But also hints to something revealed later.

After all, how could anybody in Ireland or Italy not remember the glory of the Italia ’90 World Cup?

Testing it out

In the front row sits writer and film director Ronan O’Leary.

His own vast credits include co-writing the screenplay for Frankie Starlight, starring Matt Dillon and Gabriel Byrne.

He also directed and co-wrote Driftwood, starring James Spader and Anne Brochet.

O’Leary is a huge fan of Hartnett’s work, he says.

“Michael J. Hartnett is a Dubliner who writes for Dublin in his plays and in his novels,” says O’Leary.

“The great value of readings like these is that it makes the work of Dubliners accessible to other Dubliners, with topics and situations that they can relate to,” he says.

Next to O’Leary is Don Jordan, whose own credits include the screenplay for Love Is the Devil, a biopic of Francis Bacon, starring Daniel Craig and Derek Jacobi.

Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago-Sun Times gave the film 3.5/4 stars.

Jordan says events like this, and the Five Lamps Arts Festival, are important as it brings arts into the community. “And that’s a great thing.”

“The arts don't have to always just be on a platform. They don't always have to be an event that is very formal,” he says.

“You can have an informal reading, or whatever the art form is, locally and local to people,” he says. “That's one of the great things that’s brought me along.”

Almost two decades on

The Five Lamps Arts Festival was first brought to life in 2007 by Róisín Lonergan, a retired teacher of Marino College.

Now, 19 years later, the festival is as exciting as ever, she said before Milano to Marino started.

“I don’t really get any money out of it,” she says.

“I’m the chief volunteer,” she says, with a hearty chuckle. “I’m also chief tea-maker, and chief cleaner-upper.”

Sometimes, she is also chief bouncer, she said, as she checked tickets at the door.

She is always amazed at the roster of talent the festival pulls together, she says.

The return of celebrated play The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong, starring Don Wycherley, is one personal highlight, she says.

And, there are family and children’s events across the week too, she said.

Music and theatre events for local schools, a cushion concert from the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and Lego events. 

On Sunday 19 April, there’s a family day out in the Mud Island Community Garden, behind Cloud Café in North Strand – featuring live music, dance, circus acts, and children’s workshops.

The festival is also a chance for those in the arts to meet and take stock, she says.

On Thursday morning, there was a conference in Fáilte Ireland of festival producers, she said. “Listening to what others are finding difficult.”

Theatre professionals are grappling with a loss of venues, said Lonergan.

“We lost venues in the north-east inner-city, but the new International Centre for the Image” – run by PhotoIreland at the bottom of Kennedy Wilson’s Coopers Cross complex – “in North Wall, is amazing,” she said, an optimistic lift in her voice.

Also discussed at length throughout the festival was the endless filling-in of application forms for funding, she says. 

Milano to Marino

Front of house, though, the familial tensions continue to build in the reading of Milano to Marino.

Peg decides their home needs a spruce-up, lest their soon-to-be Italian in-laws stop by.

To give the place a bit of culture, a bidet maybe. That could go in the downstairs bathroom – a small space under the stairs they nickname “granny’s grotto”.

With every suggested home improvement, Fran reminds her of how those down the years have ultimately landed on his shoulders.

He just doesn’t want the fuss anymore. But Peg wants everything just right for their baby girl’s big day.

In the latter half of the reading’s run, we are introduced to daughter Susie.

We learn things have become rocky with her new relationship.

Fran’s frustrations at any refurbishments evolve into concern.

The loving, if at-times embattled, father sees the problem and, for his daughter’s sake, starts to formulate a solution.

Dipping in

Part of the fun of the Five Lamps Arts Festival is getting to try out new ideas like Milano to Marino, in a relaxed environment among supporters and peers, said Hartnett, after the show.

“It gives you a bit of a showcase, to put your toe in the water and just see how it goes,” he says. “There's nothing like getting a live response, because then you know what's working.”

What gets a big laugh can be a surprise, he says.

Other times, it’s the reverse. “Something you think is terribly funny is a complete and utter disaster,” he said.

Hartnett isn’t quite sure yet when Milano to Marino will get its full production, he said. But he knows now what needs tightening.

“It felt a bit over-written in a few places,” he says.

Just then, Ronan O’Leary, the director, pops his head around the corner.

He has one suggestion.

That moment before Susie appears on stage? Her parents should shush each other nervously, so the audience knows she’s coming. “It builds up her entry,” he said.

Hartnett agrees, as the pair of stage and screen veterans give each other a smiling nod.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.