I, KEANO
Last updated : 02 March 2006 By Editor
All Red Issue readers can obtain a discount on tickets for the show: if they wear a football shirts when they go to the box office, they will get best available seats for a £10. This offer is for Mon 6th March – Weds 8th March inclusive.
The link to The Lowry website for I, Keano is:
http://www.thelowry.com/WhatsOn/EventDetail.aspx?EventId=2138From the Independent:
For those who may have been in the Big Brother house during the last World Cup, Roy Keane had a bit of a falling-out with the Republic of Ireland manager, Mick McCarthy. Keane took one look at the training camp in Saipan and went on the rampage.
After the mother of all foul-mouthed rows he was sent back to his Cheshire pile, while at home a nation was torn apart. Tragedy and farce collided, and now they meet head on in a musical.
"I'm a big football fan, but the whole thing was ludicrous," says Arthur Matthews, co-writer of I, Keano, which opened in Manchester last night.
"People in Ireland took it terribly seriously, people with no interest in football. It was civil war - 90-year-old women were ringing radio phone-ins. Everyone was vehemently pro or anti."
And which was he? "When we were writing the thing we decided not to say," the co-writer of Father Ted laughs. "But I think I can say now that I thought he should have stuck around."
Inspired by the success of Jerry Springer: The Opera, on the basis that if you can make a musical out of that then anything's possible, Matthews wrote I, Keano - poster line: "He came, he saw, he went home" - with Michael Nugent (plus songs by the U2 impersonator Paul Woodfull). The saga of Saipan is re-enacted in the Roman empire, as a bumbling legion led by General Macartacus is sent to a distant island to prepare for battle. The mercurial warrior Keano arrives to find a ropy battleground, missing weapons and a rabble of an army.
Part of the success is down the whole Keane package. "He's got huge charisma. He's a leader, and he's a rebel as well, which always goes down very well in Ireland." Matthews says. "He's from Cork, which is traditionally the rebel county. Plus he's a good country lad. He ticks all those boxes."
"The Keane affair just seemed to fit the classic Greek tragedy, one man's pride being the cause of his downfall." he says. "And with Macartacus there are elements of King Lear as well, so when you grafted it on to a classical sort of narrative it seemed to work well.
"Football is epic and requires moral courage. I watch matches and before the kick-off I'm a nervous wreck and I don't know how footballers do it. My theory has always been that footballers have no imagination." Keane, who presumably does, approves. "He came to see the play," Matthews says, "and he came round to meet the cast, which I think was very noble and gracious." In fact the actor playing Quinnus literally bumped into him backstage.
"Jesus!" he said. "Quinnus," Keane calmly replied.
In Manchester, he will be played by Denis Foley, another Cork man. He was firmly in the Keane camp. "I know absolutely nothing about football," he says. "But I was a staunch Keane follower. He was dead right." Research for his role, Foley says, "wasn't easy because he's not a media whore. But I sat down and watched some interviews, and I read his biography. It opened my eyes. He's a staunch professional."
'I, Keano' is at The Lowry, Salford Quays, until Saturday 11 March.
