Ways Of Making You Talk (Solo Performance)

A new play by Will Irvine, Gavin Logue and Claudia Schwartz

World premiere in the Dublin Fringe Festival 2007

 “Today is an historic occasion and historic occasions need witnesses”

So says Ariana Krankovic- the fiercely unconventional lady who observes Dublin life from her attic window high above the city centre. Having not left her room for 25 months, she isn’t exactly a social butterfly, but she invites YOU to her birthday party- if you dare….!

To mark this momentous occasion Ariana Krankovic will perform the lethal ‘Encanta’s Aria’-

a piece of music so beautiful that to sing it stops the singer’s heart.

Will she go through with it and will she survive to tell the tale? And what ties her to this extraordinary aria? Before she can find out, there are ghosts from her past that must be laid to rest.

Claudia Schwartz channels an exotic roster of fascinating characters from the Krankovic family tree each with a fantastic tale to share.

This highly comic and touchingly magical one-woman show fuses physical theatre, naturalism and live music to explore the power of the stories we tell to shape our lives.

Fishamble New Writing Award Nominee Ways Of Making You Talk returns to captivate audiences again after receiving rave reviews at the DFF 2007.

This is one birthday party not to be missed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nominated for the Fishamble New Writing Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival Awards 2007.

**** Rapturous Response

(Irish Theatre Magazine)

Disgusted and frightened by the debauchery on Dublin’s streets, Ariana Krankovic (Claudia Schwartz) has hidden herself away. For 25 months, she says, she has peered at the world from the comfort and safety of the attic in the International Bar. And now, on her 33^rd birthday, she’s invited guests to witness “a historic occasion”. Ariana lets us in on the tall tales of her family’s horrible histories. Told as bedtime stories by the odd aunt that raised her, Ariana isn’t sure of their veracity- but they frighten the life out of her. A superstitious uncle died when a horseshoe fell on his head, her nymphomaniac cousin croaked in flagrante and another young relative, who was a walking encyclopedia, perished because she knew too much. And then there’s her musical mother…Ariana hopes today to break with the past by performing Encanta’s Aria- a song so beautiful it killed the only woman to have sung it before….

(Theresa McKenna- Metro Ireland)

Ariana is a nicely observed, enjoyably quirky character…and Schwartz is entertaining as the clownish, twitchy and tender Ariana. She’s got the liveliest of faces and dancing, marionette-like, movement-akin to a contemporary Aunt Sally.

(Metro Ireland)

Schwartz’s droll solo performance is a miniature study of the boundaries of memory and fantasy…Geronimo! Theatre Company has found ways of making us listen.

(The Irish Times)

Ariana Krankovic’s face is a picture. Played by performer/co-writer Claudia Schwartz her pixie-like features flicker between a charming smile of welcome and barely repressed anxiety as the audience shuffle into their seats.

 (Tanya Dean-Irish Theatre Magazine)

Schwartz and her co-writers have made a good fist of crafting a play about contemporary Dublin.

 (The Irish Independent)

 

Co-Directors/Co-Writers:        Will Irvine and Gavin Logue

Performer/Co-Writer:              Claudia Schwartz

Composer:                               Jonathan Wilson

Clarinet Player:                        Vincent Riou

Photographer:                          Lukasz Grzywacz      

Premiered in the Dublin Fringe Festival 2007, since then performed in Dublin and Prague.

This production is dedicated to the memory of Franz Aicher