RTÉ airs Cavan writer’s play
Characteristically Charlie McGuinness is keeping himself busy. When the Celt calls he’s reading through the script of Calendar Girls, which Backstage Theatre Group are set to stage. Each year he directs the amateur group and this March they have opted for Tim Firth’s crowd pleaser.
However, it’s Charlie’s own script that’s prompted the Celt’s call.
2025 is turning into a great year for the Cavan playwright, actor and director. Fresh from having one of his dramas, ‘Fragile Maoilíosa’ performed on RTÉ Radio One last Sunday evening, the national broadcaster is set to record another of McGuinness’s plays for broadcast later this year.
‘Fragile Maoilíosa’ was aired on the ‘Drama on One’ series last Sunday. It began life as a short piece which Charlie and his father Killian read through for a relaxed Culture Night event at Townhall Cavan, with the initial title of ‘Shoebox and Whiskey’. Cornmill then took it onto the one act drama circuit in 2013. For many plays that would be a good lifespan.
However Charlie reworked it and speculatively sent it into RTÉ in response to “an open submission a few years ago” and thought no more about it. Then “out of the blue” Gorretti Slavin contacted him last August offering to produce it for radio.
Since the play involved two characters delivering monologue it was a good fit for radio, greatly reducing the editing process.
Charlie pushes back a little at the suggestion the to-and-fro of editing was probably enjoyable.
“I don’t know if it’s enjoyable either, but it’s not as hard a work to get to the first draft.”
He’s more amenable to the idea of a highly respected professional like Gorretti lending her experience to his work.
“And someone who really likes the script, is enjoying it and wants to get the best out of it - that’s always good. And you know any feedback they are giving is for the betterment of the play - they’re not just saying it,” he says with a laugh.
Gorretti cast actors Muiris Crowley in the role of Fragile and Eammon Hunt as Maoilíosa and it was recorded over three days in September.
“I was only there for the first day - to be honest I left at around lunch time. It was lovely, and lovely to meet them but I was happier to leave them at it.”
Charlie gives a short synopsis of the play: “It’s rural Ireland with an older character and a younger character, and the drama comes from them trying to figure out the same question. The older man is trying to figure out why did my son die? And the younger fella is trying to figure out, why did my friend die? In the course of the play you hear them fighting in their own heads, and then fight with each other about trying to find an answer to the question.”
Later this year RTÉ will also record and broadcast his play ‘Clarity at Last’ which was joint winner of the 2024 RTÉ PJ O’Connor Radio Drama Award.
Charlie is appreciative of this opportunity from the national broadcaster as outlets for short plays are very limited.
“There’s no companies in the country who do one act plays. If a company is going to take on a play they want a full length play for stage.
“You never know, Druid are doing the O’Casey one act plays, they might do the Charlie McGuinness one act plays,” he jokes.
Buoyed by the endorsement of RTÉ producing his monologue plays, he’s tentatively working on a few ideas for a full length play in that form.
“For me it’s the easiest form of writing in that if you have an actor standing, talking to an audience they can say anything and everything about themselves, whereas if you have dialogue you don’t have that same freedom,” he explains. ”
At the time of speaking to the Celt, like the rest of the country, Charlie had yet to hear the finished production. What’s it like waiting to hear?
“The exciting thing for me is that it’s happening, you want it be the best version it’s going to be on radio, but the exciting thing for me is that it’s produced. And it’s going to be out there!”