1. 48 19.11.15CORK INDEPENDENT
Gigoftheweek
BenjaminAppl,TriskelArtsCentre,
Friday20November,8pm
FollowinghisdebutattheBBCPromsin
theRoyalAlbertHall
earlierthisyear,Ger-
manbaritoneBen-
jaminApplap-
pearedwiththe
RTÉNational
Symphony
Orchestrain
September,and
wasselectedas
partoftheEuro-
peanConcertHall
Organisation’sRisingStars
programme.
Thelast-everstudentofthegreatDiet-
richFischer-Dieskau,hewasawardedthe
prestigiousSchubertPrizebytheDeutsche
Schubert-Gesellschafin2012.
Filmoftheweek
‘Spy’,BrieryGap,Macroom,
Monday23November,8.30pm
You’vegottoloveMelissaMcCarthy.One
ofHollywood’sleadingcomedians,McCa-
rthysharesthescreenwithJudeLaw,Jason
Statham,MirandaHartandRoseByrne
inthishilarious
comedyofCIA
shenanigans.
CIAanalyst
Susan
Cooper
(Melissa)
spends
hercareer
behindthe
deskaiding
hercharming
colleague,agent
BradleyFine(JudeLaw).
ButwhenBradleyismurderedbyBulgarian
armsdealerRaynaBoyanov(RoseByrne),
Susantalksherselfintothefieldasalive
agenttoavengehercolleagueandhilarious
anticsensue.Cert15A.
Theatreof
theweek
‘Gentrification’,FormerCork
SavingsBank,Lapp’sQuay,16-28
November,8pm
DirectedbyPatKiernanandstarring
KieranAhernandEvanJordan,‘Gentrifica-
tion’isaconversationbetweenneighbours,
aconversationoutoftheordinary.Written
byEndaWalsh,whowrote‘DiscoPigs’,and
themusical‘Once’,thissite-specificproduc-
tionisthesecondinatrioofcollaborations
betweenCorcadorcaandEatMyNoise.
Theirfirst,‘HowTheseDesperateMenTalk’,
producedforKinsaleArtsFestivallastyear
andstagedinametalfabricationfactory,
wasasell-outsuccess.With‘Gentrification’,a
once-offtheatreexpe-
riencewillbesetin
anunusualloca-
tion.Audience
capacity
isstrictly
limitedto
22perper-
formance,
soadvance
bookingis
advised.
19.11.201519.11.201519.11.2015
CORKINDEPENDENT
The year was 2010. Niall Horan had
yet to inherit one fifth of a boyband
empire, Wagner was adored and
scorned by millions, and we watched
andwaitedeveryweekforthatgrand
X Factor voice to boom, ‘Maarrryy
Byrrrne’.
Nowstarringin‘Menopause:TheMu-
sical’, Mary is power-surging her way
through the menopause with banter,
ballads and that Ballyfermot charm.
“Robert C Kelly heard about me
through the X Factor and he contacted
me after the show to do something
with him but I couldn’t, so he told me
he would be back in contact,” says 56
year old Mary Byrne.
“Last January arrived and a phone
call came. Robert asked if I would like
todotheshowandIdidn’tevenhaveto
think about it, I just said yes.”
Themusical,whichisreceivingworld-
wide acclaim, follows four women,
who meet from different walks of life,
but are marching to the very same beat
of their biological clock. Sharing the
stage with a terrific cast – Niamh Ka-
vanagh, Sue Collins and Linda Nolan
– Mary Byrne shines a light on the,
all too often, censored realities of the
menopause.
“The menopause is still, in some
places, a taboo and people won’t talk
about it. To be honest, it is personal to
eachandeverywomanbutifyouwere
to sit down with three of four friends
in their 50s and you talk about what
you go through, you realise you’re not
on your own,” she says.
“Even the men that get dragged to
it, hear the words to the songs and it
reminds them of what their wives are
going through. Especially when we’re
singing a song called ‘Night sweats’!”
Mary plays the ageing hippy, Niamh
Kavanagh struts her stuff as the power
woman,LindaNolanistheageingsoap
star and Sue Collins trumps the lot as
the trophy housewife.
“Sue Collins is one of the funniest
women I’ve met in my life, on and off
the stage. Then, I’m standing on the
stage, and I have one of the Nolan sis-
ters right beside me! I’ve watched her
ever since she began singing at the age
of 15. As for Niamh Kavanagh, my God,
that girl could sing the phone book
and make it sound phenomenal,” says
Mary.
And this comes from a woman with
three albums tucked under her belt, a
stint in the Grease musical and guest
support to Neil Diamond.
“I have two memorable moments in
my career. One, was obviously being
on the same stage as Neil Diamond at
the Aviva. I knew my family were there
so I asked: ‘Could my family just stand
up? I don’t know what side you’re on’.
And the whole stadium stood up.
“That was the moment I will go to my
grave with, embedded in my head and
heart. The other one was when I met
thequeen.Andthiswomanwalksupto
me,shakesmyhandandsays,‘I’mvery
honoured to hear you sing’.”
It looks like Queen Elizabeth had
a particular favourite when she was
watching her Saturday night show. Yet,
Byrne remains as humble as pie; a feat
quite difficult, especially when you
beginwithabangontheXFactor.Step-
ping onto the stage during auditions,
Marybeltedout‘I,WhoHaveNothing’,
with a certain something in her sultry
voice. Enough to get Mary’s first stand-
ing ovation and four thumbs up from
Simon, Cheryl, Louis and guest judge,
Katy Perry.
“As scared as I was, I loved every
moment and when I came out of the
competition, I realised just how much
I loved it. Louis and Simon were my fa-
vourite. Louis was my mentor and he
was just one of the best. A lot of peo-
ple thought I didn’t get on with Simon,
I actually got on very well with him,”
Mary adds.
“He’s the kindest person you would
meet and one of the most generous.
When he’s on on-stage – well, not so
much now because he’s gotten really
soft since he his little boy – he’s a big,
hard man. When he’s off-stage, he’s
nice and he just likes to have a bit of
fun.
“I liked Danni an awful lot and I had a
big soft spot for Cheryl. As a young girl,
she’s gone through a lot of heartache
and was, and still is, very vulnerable.
She’s not the big woman she pretends
to be.”
Mary had enough time to get to know
the judges, performing on nine of the
live shows before being eliminated,
ahead of Cher Lloyd, One Direction,
Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle.
“If any young performers ask me for
advice, I say you have to go in there
Caitriona Marron
cmarron@corkindependent.com
There’s
something
aboutMary
I don’t mind
the fact that
I would have
to go back to
work at Tesco
and I would
feel proud sitting at the
till. I just hope to God
I don’t, because I love
what I’m doing,
Mary Byrne at the launch of the
Everyman Theatre Autumn-
Winter programme.
PHOTO: DARRAGH KANE
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