For the past 15 years, the Irish Community Players have presented Irish culture through theatre. They have performed a wide mix of Irish-written plays, from turn of the 20th Century dramas to contemporary comedies.
Tonight they are going back to the 1970’s, the days of jumpsuits, flares and spandex, to present an Irish take on American psychobabble, in the comedy, I Do Not Like Thee, Dr Fell, from the pen of acclaimed Irish playwright, Bernard Farrell. This is the second of Farrell’s plays staged by the Players, the first being another comedy, All in Favour Said No, which they presented in 2006.
This play is a perceptive and mind-expanding comedy that pokes fun at the concept of American therapy groups which thrived during the late 1960’s and for much of the 1970’s. Six participants are locked in a bare room with only a few chairs and beanbags to undertake a “therapy’
session, with no way out until morning. As the night progresses, the
personalities, phobias and relationships of the characters emerge and change – with hilarious results.
Bernard Farrell was born in Sandycove, County Dublin and now lives in Greystones, County Wicklow. He was awarded The Rooney Prize for Literature in 1980, The Sunday Tribune Comedy of the year Award for Forty Four Sycamore in 1992, and in 1998, Kevin’s Bed was nominated as best Irish Play in the Irish Times/ESB Theatre Awards. He is a member of Aosdána and in 1996/1997 was the Anglo Irish Bank Writer-In-Association with the Abbey Theatre. His work has been performed in almost all of Ireland’s leading theatres, and has been produced overseas in the USA, Canada, the UK, Belgium, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
I Do Not Like Thee Dr Fell was Farrell’s first full-length play and it proved to be an instant success in Ireland. It premiered in 1979 on the Peacock Stage at the Abbey Theatre (Amharclann na Mainistreach) in Dublin and featured a young Liam Neeson in the cast,
Liam couldn’t make it to Canberra for this show but you’re sure to enjoy a night of comedy, confusion and bad fashion from a bygone age. You may learn something about yourself in the process – hopefully it’s something you’ll want to know…
