Stage: Buzz will tear us apart

Edwin Mullane is the theatrical equivalent of a 21st century indie rocker who makes his music available on the net for free.

He’s just put a ‘trailer’ for his first play, Whacker Murphy’s Bad Buzz on YouTube. Deliberately setting out to challenge the norms and boundaries of traditional theatre, the wry, funny play will be staged at Dublin’s International Bar – far more famous as a comedy venue. Mullane also stars in and directs the one-man piece, though he is lavish in his praise of ‘consultant director’ Tom Hickey. Not bad, for a guy who's only recently graduated.
He says: “Actually I just finished up in college last week and I was lucky to have a project, and product, straight away, to push and which I’m dying to get out there. I was at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dun Laoghaire – what’s great about the place is that it is multi-disciplinary, as was my course in English, Media and Culture Studies. In fact, it was when I was doing my thesis ‘Beckett in Performance as Text’ I came across some great Beckett actors such as Tom and he read my stuff and liked it and came on board as consultant director. That was an amazing stroke of luck for me because Tom is someone I respected for so long after seeing in him so many plays. He’s a man who is so generous in his work and has been that generous to me.”
Tom Hickey, take a bow! So, what is Whacker Murphy’s Bad Buzz all about? The title says it all. So does the press release which claims ‘Whacker just wants to make a few quid for himself, but when a dodgy deal goes tits-up he finds himself 1,500 quid in debt to Jimmy Mo-Mo, one of the biggest nutbags around.’
But there is far more to it than that. “I definitely think that, having received its debut last July and been performed so many times since, it finally is tweaked and is fast-paced with a gag-a-minute” Edwin explains. “Yet the story really is about a guy who wants to better himself. Whacker Murphy is a Northside head. And there’s a certain Polish barmaid he knows – to impress her he’s going to have to make a few quid for himself. So, taking the advice of one of his heroes, Al Pacino, as Scarface, he knows that in this country you gotta make the money first. Then you get the girl. So he knows this is what he has to do to achieve his dreams. And Jimmy has a few DVDs and stereos to shift, so Whacker sees this as his way of moving up the social scale and getting to bring his Polish princess out for a nice meal. But the reason Scarface is one of Whacker’s favourite films is that he sees a man on the rise and he identifies with that. Yet, isn’t that Ireland nowadays? Everyone wants a bite of the Celtic Tiger and Whacker is no different! He has his six cans of ‘Gold but he dreams of drinking the Cristal champagne some day.”
What about Edwin Mullane? Is that his dream too?
“No!” says Mullane, laughing, “Edwin has his sights set on creating art and developing as a writer and a performer. I really am very determined to get my work out there and this is only the first step.”

Whacker Murphy’s Bad Buzz starts March 4 at the International Bar, Dublin