Daring to follow a dream

Damian McCarney "I've been a West African dancer with a performance group for quite a while," Kim McCafferty says matter of factly, as she reams off her list of downright bizzonker jobs. "An Irish dancer as well. Oh, I used to do this for years when I was in college in Galway - I was acting in murder mystery weekends; a million other jobs around the town when I was young; I was at the cinema when it first opened." "More jobs," demands the Celt, curious to know what other hidden talents the young Drumalee woman possesses. By this stage the fact she has a languages degree and taught French and Spanish for a spell almost seems mundane. "Some of them are still on the go," she says. "I work with a circus group juggling, and of recent, stilting." Thanks to an indie-film with the intriguing working title of 'The Ballad of Honky McSwaine', the 26-year-old can add movie star to her unusual CV. It was penned by the illustrious Pat McCabe and his fellow Flat Lake Festival collaborator Kevin Allen and, if Kim's gallant attempts at specifying its genre are anything to go by, this acting lark may be as interesting as her previous jobs: "I guess something like 'old school B-movie style dark comedy cult horror rural mystery/thriller' might be as close as I could muster." Kim plays local journalist (sadly not for the Celt) Sinead McSwaine in an unspecified town when, well, something happens. "We discover early in the film some kind of unsavoury activities are going on," she says cagily, eager not to give away too much. "And she's determined to get to the root of it. It is her as a dissenter in the village sussing out what's going on." When operating under a tight budget, acting isn't quite as glamourous as the uninitiated might expect it to be. Kim went in with her eyes open. "Because of the low budget Kevin had to work with," she explains, "we had to squish it in in as short of time as possible." Filming was pencilled in for "three weeks non-stop" in Scotshouse January. Call time was anything between 6-8am - "usually erring on the earlier side"; then it was make-up, hair, breakfast in their Scotshouse Community Centre base, costume, transport to the set and for the remainder of the day - "film-film-film." "Often days we weren't finished until eight, nine, 10 o'clock, and then we finished with two all-nighters!" The schedule's demands almost makes Kim's decision not to pursue west African dancing sound ill-advised. However she loved every minute of it, and she admits to sneaking off for a snooze "here and there", and to warm up. "The cold was unbearable at that point though because we were outdoors in the woods, and my character didn't have her thermals on her!" Kim was greatly impressed by Scotshouse's community spirit, as residents generously provided a roof over the 55 heads of the cast and crew for the duration of the shoot. "We couldn't have been better looked after - locals gave up their houses, their spare rooms. We were given so much help and support you would not believe." To work with a writer of the stature of McCabe, who dreamt up such gems as The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto, is quite the coup for Kim, particularly as she only started acting last year. "I had been doing youth drama until I was about 16 and then I just lost the bottle, got shy and haven't done anything particularly since then. "I just remembered how much I loved it and had been thinking about getting back into it." After chatting with Cavan playwright Philip Doherty she took the plunge. In her acting debut as an adult, she conjured up the stand-out performance in last summer's memorable production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in the old abbey. "I was as nervous as a child," she admits. And what does she make of the great man McCabe? "Aw man what a gentleman," she coos. "I wish he'd adopt me. He's the most fun man I ever met in my life and he came on set a few times - wow man - so much craic with him, a real gentleman. Unassuming, hilariously funny genius." The Ballad of Honky McSwaine is currently in that frustrating limbo-land of post-production, with a release date unknown at the time of writing. Kim's hopes for it when it is finally unleashed? "That it will give people a real proper laugh. And that, should it ever reach an international audience, that it will let the Irish senese of humour be seen in a really really fantastic way, and not the polished made-by somebody else kind of way that it is often sent out. "It's darkness, it's wittyness and wryness, and it's unbelieving. I often think Irish humour is ill-portrayed in international art in general, it's kind of softened down." So with a lead role to her name, can she see her abandoning her stilts and batons for an acting career? "Career's a big word that lasts a long time, I dunno now. I've definitely never enjoyed another job quite so much, that's for sure and I've tried a lot of them. "It's what I like to do most but whether or not I dare to go for it and try to work at it all of the time remains to be seen."