Matthew Duggan

Posts Tagged ‘Steven Lally’

I’ve just come across another review for Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Steven Lally and Upstart Theatre.

It’s produced by Marion Drew for an online publication called Extra Extra, hence the title of this post. I mention it as Marion very kindly mentions the cast by name including me.

You can read the full review here.

No, that isn’t a euphemism for drinking alcoholic beverages. Well, it is, but that’s not the reason I’ve put it as the title.

The Sauce is a very good blog by journalist Brendan Montague who was kind enough to watch the show twice and take part in the two post-show discussions that we held to expand on the issues of the play Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Steven Lally.

Brendan is a former employee of a couple of Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers so he is one of the best placed people we spoke to for comment on the veracity of the play and the situations the journalists find themselves in. Brendan was very complimentary about the show and even said to me at one point:

‘I can introduce you to the guy you’re playing if you like!’

From my point of view (and that of the writer Steven Lally) this was a great compliment as it shows just how real and well-researched Steve’s writing is. The fact that my character (Fin Ashmore) exists out there in the world of journalism is both great from a creative point of view and sad from the point of view of right thinking journalists who are not content to spew out quotes and information taken directly from the news wire without questioning its authority.

In any case, you can read the review that Brendan wrote for The Sauce by clicking here.

 

 Episode One - Upstart Theatre Interview [53:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Over the past few months I’ve been doing a fair bit of work on Resonance FM, both with my own radio show (entitled Smoke & Mirrors) and as a guest on other shows.

Most recently, Upstart Theatre – the company behind ‘Oh Well Never Mind Bye’  – and I put together a radio show all about the play we’re currently doing which runs until 4th July 2009 at The Union Theatre.

The result is the first episode of The Matthew Duggan Podcast, an occasional podcast hosted by me. In this episode, I chat with writer Steven Lally, director Tom Mansfield and assistant director Laura Casey about the themes of the play, the creative process and the genesis of the play and the events of July 2005.

Here you can listen to the first episode and all the episodes will also be featured on iTunes. Just type in ‘Matthew Duggan’ into the iTunes Store and look under podcasts.

Enjoy the show and why not leave a comment below or on iTunes if you enjoy it?

I’m delighted to let you know that well-known theatre critic Michael Billington came to see Oh Well Never Mind Bye at The Union Theatre and gave us a three star review (out of 5 possible stars). Considering how much theatre he sees – and how nice he was about us actors – it seems that he had a very good evening.

You can read the review here

Whatever you may think of London’s free papers, virtually all publicity is good publicity when you’re in fringe theatre.

To that end, our lovely press ladies got us into a number of publications including the London Lite, a free newspaper which runs listings for upcoming shows.