View from the Green Room: Pat McEvoy's Waterford Arts and Theatre Review of 2024

It was another bumper year for the Arts in Waterford with new writings, new plays, a new national music festival, fascinating exhibitions, sell-out concerts and huge musicals and pantos drawing massive attendances. Add in the Spraoi Festival of Street Theatre, Writers Weekend, SETU Music Week, a major new Chamber Music Festival, writing workshops, Well Festival and the Imagine Arts Festival, a packed Culture Weekend Festival and you get an inkling of a crammed calendar of creative collective artistic work that is hardly replicated anywhere else in the country.

There is really no substitute for a live performance. It isn’t always good; but when it is, it’s magical and you will never leave a live performance without being a participant in a creative process. 

We each carry that piece of magic with us when we leave because the creative moment always lives in the memory. All theatre is really collaboration between writer, performer and audience; each is an active participant in the creative performance and that is why no two performances are ever the same.

2024 was an outstanding year for musical theatre in Waterford. Blockbuster musicals such as Evita, Crazy for You, Beautiful, and the Waterford Panto’s Beauty and the Beast packed the Theatre Royal. A new musical company – Tramore Musical Society – appeared with a sell-out with their superb programme of A Night at the Musicals. '9 to 5 The Musical' sold out for a week at the Dick Meany Theatre, as did Jack Cunningham’s Nunsense at Garter Lane, while Portlaw Panto filled the Premier Hall with Aladdin.

Stage school musicals did big business as well. David Hennessy Stage School and Dungarvan Junior Musical Society both performed Legally Blonde at Garter Lane and Dungarvan Sports Centre; Stradbally’s Stage Coach performed Grease along with Annie later in the year; Cool Dance Arts returned to Garter Lane with Cats and also Danced Down Broadway later in the summer; David Hennessy returned with a colourful Spongebob the Musical, while St Paul’s Community School packed out with Footloose.

Classical music is big business these days. The Symphony Club filled the SETU Arena with some truly outstanding concerts and Waterford Music continues to attract crowds to the Large Room with its annual programme of eight concerts. Notable Works performed the Messiah to a sold-out St. John’s Church and Kevin O’Carroll conducted the Lions Club Christmas Carol Concert to an audience that spilled out onto the steps outside the Cathedral. The Ukrainian Peace Ballet performed Sleeping Beauty and Rachel Ní Bhraonáin’s outstanding dance exploration of the self Losing Your Mind was one of the outstanding performances of the year.

A dazzling young pianist Kevin Jansson fronted the excellent Karl Kirby Memorial Concert and it was a delight to see all those young faces at the Large Room with all proceeds going to Waterford Hospice. SETU Budding Bows, with leader Amber Shamshad and conducted by Eimear Heaney, was invited to perform at the National Concert Hall in February.

There was a brilliant opening for the inaugural Waterford Chamber Music Festival. The sun shone… the temperatures rose somewhat… a galaxy of star players rocked up… front of house staff beamed with pride at their show-off sell-out festival (why wouldn’t they?)… and Mount Congreve proved just the perfect location for the first Waterford Chamber Music Festival. So… a big shout out to Butlerstown’s Billy O’Brien and his hardworking committee and to Waterford Council and Mount Congreve for supporting and hosting the event. The Waterford International Organ Festival in June took us “From the Deep Sea to Lofty Heights” and included special concerts inspired by Hamburg and Parisian composers. The weekend festival celebrated the significant anniversaries of Gabriel Fauré, Théodore Dubois and Matthias Weckmann, as WIOF brought world famous organists to Waterford to perform programmes from the golden eras of organ composition.

Concerts that also caught the public’s eye were Derek Flynn’s concerts that celebrated the work of ABBA, Fleetwood Mac, Simon and Garfunkel, Richie Hayes’s concert and the Theatre Royal’s 240th celebration of its opening. Intonations appeared at Christ Church, as did the Waterford Male Voice Choir, while Madrigallery performed at St. Patrick’s Gateway.

Professional drama was sadly at a premium in both city theatres. However, the quality of the productions was evident from the large attendances. Once Off Productions brought a superb performance of The Hare, while a disturbing and jarring Vixen was powerful. Red n Blue Theatre Co. gave us a splendid Taboo, while a co-production from the quills of our Jamie Beamish and Richard Kieswick, whose mum is a Cheekpoint woman, played Backstage at the Theatre Royal – a venue that just doesn’t work. We had an underwhelming Unrehearsed Scenes from Shakespeare in August and an excellent Outrage from Fishamble Theatre Co. later on. Jim Nolan’s new play, the excellent Castel Gandolfo, completed a disappointingly small number of professional work in Waterford. We’re clearly missing out on touring productions that seem to find their way to Kilkenny and Wexford.

Amateur drama flourished. We had four big cast productions from Curtain Call and Dungarvan Dramatic at the Dungarvan Town Hall – Private Peaceful, A Few Good Men, The Snapper and The Dumb Waiter. Brewery Lane was on board with some fine productions also with Glorious, Bone Music and The Dumb Waiter. Theatre Vamps toured Misery, Déise Dogs and The Boys of Summer, as well as a string of tribute acts, as did the Minaun Community Theatre Group with Medical Woman. WDS had a very strong My Brilliant Divorce at Garter Lane and Stagemad produced Wayne Power’s new play Dress You Up at Bank Lane. David Hennessy Musical & Dramatic Society’s coming-of-age drama for a boy with Down syndrome in “Up Down Boy” was an emotional rollercoaster that brought audible sobs and visible tears from the audience at St. Patrick’s Gateway.

The Waterford Museums continue to be a major attraction with historical talks and conferences. The Broderick lunchtime talks in February and October on Irish history in the twentieth century play to full houses in the Garden Room and a fascinating talk from Agnes Aylward on Lafcadio Hearn Japanese Gardens was a highlight. The standout moment was of the course the international conference that ran over three days in the Large Room on Waterford and the Wider World that marked the silver anniversary of the Waterford Museum of Treasures.

Exhibitions happened all over the county. Tramore Artists and the SEA Art Group exhibited in Tramore and the Kwaidan exhibition inspired by the writings of Lafcadio Hearn brought large crowds of tourists to the Coastguard Arts Centre in Tramore. GOMA had multiple exhibitions and the exhibition at the Waterford Gallery of Art in O’Connell Street on Irish Art Olympians was a highlight.

Stand-up comedy drew huge crowds. Jason Byrne, Pat Shortt, Reggie, Jarlath Regan, Kyla Cobbler and Ed Byrne all did big business, while tribute acts continue to attract huge crowds.

Many thanks to all the venues who hosted these events and to both local editors, who facilitate the promotion of the arts in Waterford.

SHURE THERE’S NEVER ANYTHING ON IN WATERFORD !!!