An Irish Story - (Une histoire irlandaise)

Written by Kelly Rivière - Performed by Kelly Rivière
Over 500 performances in France - First appearence in Belgium

Length 1h25 (in French, English surtitles - Voir page en français)

This show is a marvel, the miracle you hope to see
every night when you go to the theatre.
No more, no less.
Télérama TTTT

The story

In 1949, Peter O’Farrel, aged 19, leaves Knockarron, a tiny village in southern Ireland, to look for work in London. A few months previously, he met Margaret. They fall in love. When Peter leaves Ireland, he does not know that Margaret is expecting a child. They marry in London. And Peter does not know whether he will ever see Ireland again. Neither does he know that he will have five other children with Margaret within the next ten years. At age 26, Margaret has six children. Penniless, without permanent accommodation, Irish people in the England of the 1950s to 1960s, their life is difficult. Peter drowns his sorrow in alcohol. He disappears regularly, without giving news of where he is. Nobody knows what he does during these long absences. One day, he does not come back. Since then, there has been no news of him. Nobody in the family talks about him. Margaret never wished to even mention him. His grand-daughter, Kelly Ruisseau, sets out to try to find him.

It is this quest that we participate in, over time - from the 1930s in Ireland up till the year 2000 in France - as well as over geographic and linguistic borders. It is a voyage into the heart of a family with its secrets and its silences. It is also a trip into a story so intimate as to become universal, that of a family marked for ever by a disappearance.

I have carried this story within me, since the age of 15. It is the story of my Irish grand-father, who disappeared over 30 years ago. It is the story of his grand-daughter who sets out to find him. For a long time, I asked myself what had become of Peter O’Farrel, what made him disappear, whether he was still alive, where he was. When a person disappears, he or she is not dead, but is “like” being dead.

This “like” makes all the difference, because it allows for hope. Hope that the person is still alive. I did not know my grand-father, but I was able to see the mark he left on his family. He exists more through his absence than through his presence. How can one bring to life someone who has disappeared? How can one put together the pieces of the puzzle? We have no hero, no achievements to recall, just silence and taboos. Given that in real life my search for him was unsuccessful, the world of theatre offered the only possibility to tell this story, to imagine a life, an existence, about the mysterious Peter O'Farrel. No doubt the desire to create an authentic family background, clear away the fog and free all the ghosts led me to describe this story through the theatre.

Press

She's dizzying. She tells the story of a host of characters, women, teenagers and men, wrinkled ancestors and vibrant youngsters. She is mind-blowing because she is true to life at every moment.
LE FIGARO

It's a fresh, lively and unpretentious one-man show that's great fun

to watch. (...) A return to the very core of the theatre.
FRANCE CULTURE