On Saturday, 29th August, at Garter Lane, a new production/theatre team will present for one night only – An Audience With . . . Set up by three friends, PUSHPULL Productions are definitely new kids on the block, on the wall, on the page, on the stage.
Perhaps their youth and possible inexperience is what I find attractive about them and I missed their first two outings before their public. But you just have to admire their sense of vision. If there is a recession, they don’t let it cramp their dreams. They have a punky cheekiness, or at least their spokesman, Jamie Flynn, has. He exudes can-do-enthusiasm to do something that seems to be almost so difficult it seems pointless not to do it.
PUSHPULL have a Mission Statement and a stated list of Values about being not only a theatre company but being a visual arts experience. They have dreams, they have a bucketful of attitude and they needed recognition.
Some might say, they are trying to run before they can walk but that would be unfair. They got Waterford City Arts Office to find an art project at Blackfriars and another of their associates Alan Cliff is running script-writing workshops at City Library.
Their inspiration is like their age – modern and determined. In one sense, they see themselves as like Harry Potter Kids – two boys and a young lady, destined to meet, and begin an adventure that would change their lives forever…
They are Jamie Flynn, writer and director, fresh out of Waterford Yoouth Arts – a punk who dreams of being a Johnny Rotten of the stage. Dean Sullivan, writer, director, who worked with Bag Of Trees, a community theatre grup. The girl is Derry O’Gorman, with organisation and visual arts skills and a family history in circus, dance and stage management.
An Audience With… is their shot at the bigger stage, doing rather than dreaming or endlessly talking. Come and see them, enjoy them, help them fly. A one-night chance. I don’t intend to miss it or them.
