THE STAGE, Theatre Review
Cast exhibits fine teamwork
Duchess
Alone It Stands
"The acting, by Malcolm Adams, Dessie Gallagher,Garrett
Lombard, Gerry McCann and Paul Meade, in addition to McGrath, is beyond
reproach in all respects. Adams shines particularly as grizzled old man
and fiercely committed coach while Gallagher and Meade display forbidding
physical presence. Jack Kirwan contributes an effective cyclorama setting
which shows the Limerick skyline and James McFetridge's lighting cues into
the non-stop action skilfully."
Peter Hepple
The Sunday Times
January 13, 2002
Munster woos West End
Denis Walsh
The province's famed victory over the All Blacks is brilliantly tackled amid
the bright lights of London
The actor Malcolm Adams is sitting in his dressing room at the Duchess Theatre
in London's West End, reflecting on the life of Alone It Stands. From this
elevated place, it is a panorama stretching out below. The night they staged
the play at Dundalk rugby club is far off in the distance but it is no strain
on his mind's eye. These were the nights that made them.
The only costumes for the show are All Black jerseys in the first half and
Munster jerseys in the second but that day the bag which should have contained
the Munster jerseys returned from the laundrette stuffed with duvets.
On another night they might have laughed and put it down to "showbiz,
darling" except that in the audience was a critic from RTE Radio's Arts
Show.
At the intermission they were presented with Dundalk rugby jerseys and told
to make do. "It was obviously jerseys they had played in and hadn't washed,"
says Adams, "I swear to God, the smell. We get so close to each other
on stage with all the srums and rucks and what have you that I was almost
throwing up. Awful, awful, awful."