Notes
Car Show involves four concurrent performances, each set in a different car. An audience of three witnesses each fifteen minute performance. The original production played in Meeting House Square for the Dublin Fringe Festival 1998 and featured Outside Eden devised by Annie Ryan and Michael West with Anna Healy and Andrew Bennett; 5 devised by Terry O’Hagan with Robert Price and David Pearse; Love Me?! by Arthur Riordan and directed by Lynne Parker; and Salty Dog by Alex Johnston.
Following the original production, Car Show toured the UnFringed Festival, Belltable, Limerick in January 1999, where Outside Eden was replaced by Breakdown at the Belltable devised by Annie Ryan with Kate Perry and Tim Ruddy; to the Galway Arts Festival in July 1999, where Outside Eden was replaced by My Way devised by Annie Ryan with Janet Moran and Gary Cooke and Salty Dog was replaced by Salty Dog 2: Black Dog by Alex Johnston; to the October Arts Festival in Ennis, where Outside Eden was replaced by Death in Ennis devised by Mark O’Halloran and Tony Flynn.
In June 2000 Car Show played the Greenwich Festival in London, where Outside Eden was replaced by Brief Encounter devised by Annie Ryan with Elizabeth Kuti and Tony Flynn and Salty Dog was replaced by Black Dog 2: Religious Version by Alex Johnston; and to the Restless Gravity Festival, Wales in October 2002, where Outside Eden was replaced by Pact devised by Caroline McSweeney with Niall Ó Sioradáin and Ned Dennehy, 5 was replaced by 6 devised by Terry O’Hagan with Eddie Tighe and Salty Dog was replaced by The Weight by Alex Johnston.
In Oct 2001 Car Show toured the Portlaoise Arts Festival, where the line up was Love Me?!, 6, Accessorize devised by Mark O’Halloran with Susanna de Wrixon and Melanie McHugh and Barbarian by Alex Johnston.
Synopsis
Outside Eden:
A well-to-do and heavily pregnant married couple, Adam and Eve, have just emerged from Eden restaurant and fight about nouvelle cuisine, love and tipping.
5:
Two undercover cops stake out a joint and wait for the signal. They kill time with a copy of Cosmo and reminisce about Top of the Pops.
Love Me?!:
A young couple wake up to discover they have died in a car crash and are sentenced to purgatory to relive the last moments of their lives over and over again.
Salty Dog: Two young women leave the funeral of a friend to reminisce about her wild times and discover her shocking betrayal.
Breakdown at the Belltable:
A young politician is inside a theatre when his mistress, distressed by his lack of recent attention, hauls him out, into the car and over the coals.
My Way:
Love is on the rocks with a sparky young couple when her father is insulted for his taste in karaoke.
Death in Ennis:
Tom has taken his fiancee, Adrian, to meet the family in his hometown of Ennis. Adrian storms out of the party and into the car after his sister was gravely insulted. Tom tries to calm him down.
Brief Encounter:
A young mother drops off an old college friend to the train after a weekend reunion. She confesses her misery and her love, but it is not to be, and they must part forever.
Salty Dog 2: Black Dog: When Ruth rants about being dumped by her boyfriend, her friend suggests a brutal act of revenge.
Black Dog 2: Religious Version: A religious zealot makes a pass at her friend.
6: Two men on a stakeout, come to terms with growing older, student drinking, Japanese cults, lost opportunities, bowel movements, nuclear doom, ulcers and surgical gloves.
Pact: A comedian, a parked car and a debt collector who works for Satan.
The Weight: Two young women wake up after a party in Wexford and discover they’re in Wales with a body to boot.
Accessorize: A young bride discovers the betrayal of her maid of honour in the back seat.
Barbarian: A Dublin taxi driver talks politics.