Pakie O'Callaghan - Celebrating Eamon Kelly's Stories

Pakie O’Callaghan’s “A celebration of the stories of Eamon Kelly” developed out of an RTE radio programme that went out in the autumn of 2022 to mark international story telling day. Pakie was invited to tell a couple of stories on the programme and as a lifelong admirer of Kelly he opted to tell two of the master storytellers’ stories. He was subsequently invited to do a full length show based on Kelly’s stories and “a celebration of the stories of Eamon Kelly” is the result. Eamon Kelly has been one of O’Callaghan’s theatrical heroes since O’Callaghan’s teenage years and he fondly remembers listening with his father to Kelly on Dinjo’s “Take the floor” which went out for many years on Sunday nights on Radio Eireann and later on to Kelly’s own programme “The Rambling House”.  O’Callaghan remembers being transfixed by Kellys performances in his one man shows “In my Fathers Time”, “Bless me Father” and “Stonemad” which were performed to packed houses at The Everyman Theatre and which won widespread acclaim both in Ireland and internationally.A celebration of the stories of Eamon Kelly  will be a trip down memory lane for many but O’Callaghan is hoping to also develop a new audience for these stories which he describes as universal and timeless and always very, very funny. In the show O’Callaghan does not seek to mimic Eamon Kelly and while staying true to the wonderful writing “A celebration of the stories of Eamon Kelly” is O’Callaghan’s own interpretation of the work of Ireland’s greatest storyteller .The show is directed by Marion Wyatt, who is remembered for bringing us “Sunbeam Girls”, “Dockers”, “Katty Barry, Queen if the Coal Quay” and is currently working on celebrating another great Cork institution “Echo Boys”The show had it's first outing on the 20th of April in The Glen Theatre, Banteer, with which O'Callaghan has a long and happy association, having previously brought his own one man shows "In the National Interest" and "No More Brown Envelopes" as well at The Santa Ponsa Triology there.