Manic Street Playwright

For far too long now Dublin has been awash with cultural events that never made their way north of the border. But turning that tendency on its ass the Lyric Theatre company recently presented for five performances only a play that really deserves to be staged in Dublin, and the South, in general. It is Everything Must Go, written by Patrick Jones, brother of Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire.

Set in South Wales and described as a "revenge tragedy for the here-and-now" that "screams out the hopes and fears of a new generation with nothing on their side but dreams, drugs and a determination to survive", Everything Must Go, Jones hopes, "just might be considered for the Dublin Theatre Festival" or any similar theatrical event.
As for the Manics connection, the band's lead singer James Dean Bradfield, has said: "I thought it was brilliant. Absolutely amazing. Some of our songs have never sounded so good before."
But the play is about far more than just some tenuous link to the band.
"The best thing about the play, for me, is that younger audiences have been going to see it. And younger audiences are open to new things. Because is not necessarily a traditional play. It started off as a collage, with images, and I had to chisel a story into it!" Patrick Jones explains."But a lot of young people are coming in to it because of the Manics connection, which is fine, but the play does stand on its own. Though I'm bound to say that. And the point is that the title, Everything Must Go, was my title first! They borrowed it."
Jones is, it transpires, "a poet who got fed up with the poetry circuit here in Wales" and decided to write this, his first play. With a blend of what he describes as "poetry and politics" in his soul Patrick also was determined to focus mostly on the 90s generation.
"The play really is all about the determination to survive and to get through," he explains. A lot of the London press said 'he borrows Trainspotting ideas but there's very little about drugs. It really is more about survival mechanisms, the fact that I believe it is poetry and politics and action that change the world.
I wanted to create a new kind of hero, he continues. Someone that had poetry and politics in his soul but was quite violent as well! He kills the person who sacked his dad and though, obviously, I'm not advocating murder, I do see that as a metaphor for change. Especially in Wales which is probably similar to Ireland where young people are very apathetic and would probably rather do nothing, just get pissed on Saturday night. I want to shake people out of that apathy, say 'we've got to stand up for things.
Jones "absolutely rejects" the notion that Everything Must Go "borrows" from Trainspotting. He claims to be "far more influenced" by film-makers such as Ken Loach and playwrights like Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Not surprisingly, the politics in the play are decidedly Left wing.
"Definitely, they're asking question about the way we live" he says."Questioning New Labour, questioning culture, questioning everything. In that sense it is a bit nihilistic. But it doesn't preach, say 'this is the right way to live.' It's more apocalyptic. It all heads towards the question 'where do we go next?' There are no solutions in the play. But each character goes through a journey and we all learn from that change which is, I think, part of the solution, in itself.
This, Jones affirms, is where the music of the Manics really fits in.
Them, as well as Catatonia and The Stereophonics, he says. That music reflects the culture of the people I'm writing about. I started off using a lot of Hole or Smashing Pumpkins but, as the play developed, I realised the Manics, and such, were just right for it. It's like young people in Ireland, at one point, claimed ownership of bands like U2 and, in the North, Stiff Little Fingers. So I finally accepted that it would be absolutely right to use Manic Street Preachers. At least I didn't have to use fucking Tom Jones!"