The Good Crank: Kitty takes us on a rollercoaster journey to find her lost Man

KITTY Clog is an ageing woman who is determined not to go quietly into that good night.

With lots of attitude and a motley crew of supporting characters (all played by star of Father Ted and Fair City Rose Henderson), Kitty takes us with her on a rollercoaster journey to find her lost man.

‘The Good Crank’ is an exploration of the flip-flop existence of an older woman at odds with the world she has been squeezed into.

This show is presented by Sight Nor Sound Theatre, written by Alan McMonagle, and directed by Goretti Slavin.

This week, The Echo sat down with Alan to discuss ‘The Good Crank’, which performs in the Civic Theatre from May 12-16.

A matinee performance will be held on May 13 at 1pm.

What inspired this show?

‘The Good Crank’ began as a short story. And a voice.

Two thousand words of attitude and haughtiness and a smidgen of vulnerability in the voice of a woman who is convinced she is never going to die.

And to be honest, I didn’t fully realise it was a woman until I had finished it.

A woman who has been knocking around long enough to have experienced all that life can throw at a person; setbacks and disappointments and frustrations and all manner of little betrayals that can chip away at a person.

She’s not bitter, though.

She just has some unfinished business with the world she has grown into, and she is not going to go quietly into that good night.

How long has it been in production?

The story was there.

In my collection of short stories, ‘Psychotic Episodes,’ published in 2013.

A theatre company was interested in developing it back then, but people got waylaid with various projects and nothing happened. Enter Gorretti Slavin, a director in the audio drama department at RTE.

We had collaborated on a few audio dramas together.

She read the story and told me we should develop this piece for the stage.

She articulated (better than I ever could!) why she felt ‘The Good Crank’ was ideal for a stage production.

She urged me to adapt the text and to develop the text, and Gorretti, let me tell you, is very good at firing up a writer.

And so I developed ‘The Good Crank’ over the summer of 2023. Once Rose was cast, it went into rehearsal in March 2024.

And it premiered at the 2024 Galway Theatre Festival.

Was Rose Henderson always in mind for this role?

Rose was born to play Kitty Clog, aka ‘The Good Crank’!

The play leans into humour and the absurdities to be found in everyday life.

Farcical moments. And also some carefully rendered quiet moments.

Rose is a wonderful comic actor. Gorretti recorded Rose reading an early scene in the play and not only did she quickly find the humour, I thought her voice perfectly captured the lurking vulnerability.

Also, the play is populated with an array of colourful characters. All of these are voiced by Rose. Rose has actually counted twenty-seven different voices. (I didn’t realise there were so many myself!).

And I can’t think of many actors who would be able to take on such a range of voices in a single piece.

What are some of the pressures/struggles you have encountered during production?

Sourcing props! We had great fun trying to source a bicycle stand. Spoilers prohibit any mention of why we need the bicycle stand; suffice it to say it involved an odyssey via donedeal.i.e., into the bowels of north Galway and an encounter with an overly pernickety keypad gate, an extremely long driveway and a rather eccentric gentleman who greeted us dressed in a very outré robe!

Happy to report, we came away with what we needed.

What would you consider to be your favourite project you have worked on and why?

The best project is always the current project.

You’re writing towards something you know is going to get finished, get cast, get rehearsed, get all the attention and focus of cast and crew alike, and will be made as good as it can possibly be by showtime.

What is next after this?

Sight Nor Sound has two plays in development.

These are both three-handers. One titled ‘Oscar Night’ and the other titled ‘Shirley Temple Killer Queen’.

‘Oscar Night’ is a black comedy that plays out in the home of ageing beauty queens Annabelle and Miranda.

They are about to settle down in front of the annual Academy Awards ceremony broadcast when there is a knock on their door.

It’s an escaped felon who thinks he has landed on his feet… ‘Shirley Temple Killer Queen’ will feature a pair of sibling sister assassins-for-hire who rock up at the location of their final kill, a rack and ruin bar manned by a prickly proprietor.

Cue misfiring pistols, sisterly jousts and one too many cocktails!

Who would you like to thank?

Gorretti Slavin, Rose Henderson, Lauren Dignam, Barry Donaldson, Kathleen ‘Wing Commander’ Slavin, Mary ‘Theatre Angel’ Harrington, Fifi Smith, Don at Wesley House, Dave O’Boyle, and Dara Lynch.