Nov 25
The 1990s in theatre meant more than “in-yer-face” plays. At the same time as British drama was growing graphic and biological, a crop of Irish playwrights were breathing new life into the monologue form. Conor McPherson and Enda Walsh are the best known, but in 1999 Mark O’Rowe’s Howie the Rookie almost bridged the gap between the monologue and in-yer-face currents.
Howie Lee and Rookie Lee – no relation – share a surname and a city, Dublin. In Mark O’Rowe’s revival of his own cult classic, both men are played by a single actor, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, and they seem to share much more besides: a Neanderthal gait, empty eyes and a slack-jawed drawl. It’s like they were destined to meet in fateful circumstances.
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Mark O’Rowe interview each other in the Irish Independent on 1st Nov 2014.
Nadine O’Regan chats to Mark O’Rowe and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor ahead of the return of Howie the Rookie.
Read the full article here. 26th October 2014 Sunday Business Post
It is curtain call at the end of the first preview of Mark O’Rowe’s emotionally bruising new play, Our Few and Evil Days, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, and the audience are on their feet. On stage, five actors, among them Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, take their bows. Looking out into the auditorium, the cast seem tentative, grateful, humbled by the warmth from the audience, that previously unknowable but essential piece of the jigsaw of theatre.
“I love previews, as an actor or in the audience,” Vaughan-Lawlor says the following morning. “There is that sense that anything can happen.”
Read four-star rave review by Peter Crawley in The Irish Times here.
“Mark O’Rowe transforms his two-hander monologue play into an epic one-man performance for Tom Vaughan-Lawlor”
“riveting new production”
Read Harvey O’Brien’s review for Irish Theatre Magazine here.
“An instant classic in 1999, Mark O’Rowe’s Howie the Rookie returns to Dublin almost a decade and a half on renewed and retooled as a solo performance directed by the playwright. It is, quite simply, an essential experience.”
Read four-star review by Chris Wasser in The Herald here.
“an astonishing feat … as a one-man show, it’s captivating. As a lesson in stage acting, it’s terrifying. On the box, Vaughan-Lawlor is a damn fine actor. Here on the stage, he is astounding.”
Read John McKeown’s review in the Irish Independent here.
“superbly singular performance“
