Delighted to have been part of the “Fractured” writing team along with Martina Murphy, Brendan Farrell and Claire Reilly.
ABOUT FRACTURED By Claire Reilly
We might not have called our project ‘Fractured’ had we known what a perspicacious name that would turn out to be. Fractured by name and fractured by the freak of nature that is Covid 19. However, having picked up and rearranged the broken pieces of our dream – twice! – the team from Down at Heel Productions has finally completed our project – albeit in a vastly reimagined format.
So what is – or was – Fractured?
Essentially, ‘Fractured’ is Kildare’s commemoration of the War of Independence. Funded by Creative Ireland through Kildare County Council, it was originally planned as a live, immersive, episodic soap opera that would run for two years in the shops/houses and on the streets of Maynooth, telling the story of a fictional family who lived, loved and lost during the very turbulent times of 1920-1922.
All shows were to be ticketed and free. Audiences would follow the Barry family who live and work in a Maynooth pub as they navigate the politics and divisiveness of the time. Each episode (one 40 minute show per month) was to be filmed and available online for audiences to follow.
Fractured follows all the of historical events of the time – the elections, Bloody Sunday, local ambushes, Treaty negotiations – and mixes it up with raw human drama to create an addictive mix that would hopefully have encouraged loyal audiences month after month.
More than 60 cast members – all local actors from Kildare – had been recruited, and were happy to spend the next two years of their lives performing in our live shows. A further ten directors were enlisted, as well as costume designers, stage hands, prop masters and stewards. It was going to be epic!
And then Covid hit and it all fell to pieces.
After many false starts and changes to plans, the team finally decided to record our series in podcast format, and we are thrilled to have finally achieved this. Fractured is now available across all platforms, and has been streamed by listeners all over the world. We’re thrilled that this fascinating period of Irish history can now be accessed by a far wider audience than we ever anticipated.
Our four writers – Martina Murphy, Claire Reilly, Joe Bergin and Brendan Farrell – have created a nail-biting, emotional, tense, fractious, tender and often hilarious roller coaster ride through history.
The entire series can be listened to or downloaded as individual episodes or as an entire audiobook from the Internet Archive HERE
Episodes can also be heard on the Down at Heel Youtube channel – HERE
Meet the cast HERE
Behind the scenes HERE
Photos
Joe Bergin 