Marc-Ivan O'Gorman

Last Thoughts

November 9, 2018 Cleverality

I am delighted at the reception of my latest work, Last Thoughts, a Broadcast Authority of Ireland funded radio programme on the life and music of Irish composer, John Field.

Last Thoughts, is a docudrama, interweaving interviews of piano music experts with performances by an international cast. The interviews were recorded in Ireland, while the biographical dramatization was recorded in Burbank Studios in Los Angeles.

The story follows John Field’s life from his early days as a child prodigy in Dublin and London, to spectacularly successful tours playing across Europe, to his final days as the most celebrated musician and composer in Russia. The show aired on RTE Lyric FM.

Sound & Images from MOUTHS MAKING WATER launch

July 14, 2018July 14, 2018 Cleverality

Some behind the scenes footage and phone videos of the readings from the launch at the Time-Based Art Pop-Up on Bloomsday in Carlow, Ireland.

An article in the local paper about the launch of the book.

Interview with the adapter of the novel, Marc-Ivan O’Gorman, and the designer of the book, Richard O’Gorman, on Sue Nunn’s show, The Way It Is, on KCLR 96FM.

* * * Book Release * * *

May 25, 2018July 14, 2018 Cleverality

* * * BLOOMSDAY BOOK LAUNCH * * *

MOUTHS MAKING WATER, Marc-Ivan O’Gorman’s stage adaptation of James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake, was released in book form on Bloomsday, June 16 2018 at 8.30pm.

MOUTHS MAKING WATER started life in February 2015, when, Marc-Ivan O’Gorman was asked to direct a play of his choosing as the graduate production for the Acting Degree Students in Dundalk Institute of Technology. Rather than select an existing play, Marc-Ivan chose to adapt Finnegans Wake for the stage. The ensuing show, entitled MOUTHS MAKING WATER, ran in the Mac Anna Theatre Dundalk and was a dramatic distillation of the novel.

One reviewer described the production as follows: “Rather than try to make Joyce’s impenetrable text accessible for simple meaning, the actors performed the lines as poetry, accentuating the musicality and hidden emotion of the book. The effect was quite hypnotic. The disciplined ensemble movement and use of sound added to the sense of a dense voice poem coming vividly to life in an entrancing theatrical ritual.” The notoriously difficult novel was made accessible by being read aloud.

The book designed by Richard O’Gorman includes a cover design by Aiden Grennelle, and illustrations by Anthony Walsh.

There is also an original soundtrack connected with the stage production. To listen these tracks please visit: MOUTHS MAKING WATER soundtrack by The Spinning Boy

Worth 1000 Words

November 27, 2017November 27, 2017 Cleverality

I have written many screenplays, some produced, and quite amount of commercial copy. I’ll be posting them here in the coming days.

A Bright and Guilty Place

November 27, 2017May 6, 2022 Cleverality

So I’m on the bus. I’m soaking it all in, up the Ventura freeway, a route in part sponsored by “Bad Boys Bail Bonds”, we pass a shocking pink van advertising the essential “Topless Maid Service” (dial 1-844-SO-DIRTY), and I’m already computing the calculus of California. Is it better to take the 405 to the 101 to the 134 or the 105 to the 10 to the 5 to 134? These permutations were once a local pastime and the equivalent of Irish people scanning a grey morning and assessing whether it calls for the winter coat or just the windcheater. Of course, now there’s an app for all that.