Martin McNamara
Martin McNamara is an award-winning writer who has scripted radio dramas, stage plays, short films, and optioned feature scripts.
He also makes radio documentaries, worked as a TV news producer and been commissioned to write a non-fiction book.
He is based in London and his background is in journalism.
When Sean Became James
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When Sean became James tells the story of the making of Dr No and of the unique and very different groups of men who came together to accidentally create one of the most influential films of all time.
As Barbara Broccoli, the daughter of Cubby, and producer of the current Bond franchise recalled. ‘The original filmmakers were (producers) Cubby and Harry, (writer) Ian Fleming, (director) Terence Young and Sean Connery. They all created something extraordinary. They changed cinema history. They pushed the envelope.’
Published by SunRise Publishing.
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"A great read for those who love James Bond and the film industry"
"The fascinating background to Bond"
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RITA MCGRINDER
IS STILL HERE
official programme
Meet Rita, forthright, funny and bloody furious
It’s 2010 and fifty-something barmaid Rita McGrinder is opening the doors to the same old regulars in a back-of-beyond pub in rural Monaghan, Ireland.
As she works, she delivers a caustic recollection of a disappointed life, but one lived in extraordinary times.
Hers is a story that, despite all its rural mundanity, encompasses violence, sex, scientific discovery, illiterate nuns, hypocrisy, terrorism, sock laundry, Daniel O’Donnell, showbands, dying priests, Jedward, and strap-ons. It has been a whirlwind of change and, at the heart of the storm, stands Rita McGrinder. She’s seen it all. Hell, she’s lived it all.
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Rita McGrinder is Still Here is a dark, darkly funny and disturbing tale of life lived in an age of tumult. One woman’s story that runs from tragedy to comedy to a kind of redemption.
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Rita is pitilessly acerbic, brutally funny, and maybe she feels just a wee bit homicidal. And if she does, well maybe she has good cause.
​Common Room, Omnibus Theatre,
Clapham Common Northside, London, SW4 0QW
Tuesday 29 August to Saturday 16 September
8PM, 4PM (SUN)
£15 STANDARD, £13 CONCESSION
For tickets and information
★★★★ - breakingthefourthwall
"A masterpiece in the making" - The Morning Star"
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….brilliant writing…beautifully observed…McGrinder is played superbly by Mary O’Sullivan, so well in fact that it is hard to register that this is not actually O’Sullivan’s tale…" - thereviewshub
CAST AND CREW
Mary O'Sullivan, actor
Originally from Limerick City, Mary has performed on stage in Ireland, the London Fringe and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Previous roles include Rita in Educating Rita, Old Woman in J.B. Keane's Big Maggie, Maggie in Dance-Hall Days with the Irish Repertory Theatre Company, UK (The Riverside Studios), and Auntie Ah in Marina Carr's Woman and Scarecrow. In 2018 she was awarded Best Actress at the Abu Dhabi International Theatre Festival. She has appeared in the short films, SHAMED and Life After Life for fremar Productions, directed by Damien Varley.
She recently returned from the Middle East where she lived for five years and performed with Padraig Downey's theatre company DANU.
Su Gilroy, director
Su is a freelance theatre director and dramaturg with more than fifty productions to her credit, from short rehearsed readings to full-scale productions in number one venues (Gaslight, Wolverhampton Grand Theatre; Cinderella, Lyceum Theatre, Crewe). She has directed classic plays in rep (An Inspector Calls, Manor Pavilion, Sidmouth; I Have Been Here Before, Tivoli Theatre, Wimbourne) and has worked with many writers to bring their work to the stage (Unclouded Moon, Brighton Festival; (S)Elfish Christmas, Bread & Roses Theatre; Painted Warriors, Tabard Theatre; Invisible Me, Wimbledon Studio Theatre; I, Minnie Lansbury, Bloomsbury Festival; and Moment of Grace, Hope theatre, for which she was Offie Nominated).
Martin McNamara, writer
Martin’s plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio Four and produced at many London theatres, including Soho Theatre, Theatre503, Lion & Unicorn, Bread & Roses, JW3, N16 Theatre, London Irish Centre and the Bunker, as well as in Wandsworth Prison. His play about the Guildford Four, Your Ever Loving, played at the Underbelly, Edinburgh in 2017, and was named best drama of the Festival. His scripted short films have been selected for festivals around the world. He won the BBC Northern Ireland/Tony Doyle bursary. He has worked as a print journalist, radio documentary-maker and TV news producer. His adaptation of Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy. starring Brendan Coyle, was broadcast on Radio Four earlier this year to mark the writer’s 100th anniversary.
www.martinmcnamara.org
Omnibus Theatre
Omnibus Theatre is a multi-award-winning independent theatre in Clapham, South London.Finalist in the Fringe Theatre of the Year 2019 The Stage Awards, Off-West End Award winner 2018 and 2020, and recipient of the Peter Brook/Royal Court Theatre Support Award in 2016. The heart of the organisation’s ambitious programme lies in classics re-imagined, modern revivals and new writing. Omnibus Theatre also provides a platform for LGBTQ+ work and aims to give voice to the under-represented and challenge perceptions. Since opening in 2013 notable in-house productions include Woyzeck (2013), Macbeth (2014), Colour (2015), Mule (2016), Spring Offensive (2017), Zeraffa Giraffa (2017), Queens of Sheba (2019), The Little Prince(2019), RICE! (2021), The Human Connection (2021), The Girl Who Was Very Good At Lying (2021), FIJI (2022), SAD (2022) and DRUM (2022)
The company would like to thank:
Victoria Porter, Mike Gilroy, Runaway Brewery, Gary Fish, folk@florencedock and Brigitte Mierau
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