Des Keogh to play George Bernard Shaw in latest one-man show
Performing a one-man show can be a little lonely sometimes, but there’s an element of control that
makes it a very enjoyable experience, Irish actor Des Keogh tells Jessica Thompson.
After celebrating his 80th birthday this year, Des Keogh is fulfilling a lifelong ambition and playing
legendary Irish man of letters, George Bernard Shaw in his latest one-man show My Fair Ladies.
Produced and directed by Patrick Talbot, My Fair Ladies, will show in the Town Hall Theatre on 5 and
6 June and will feature anecdotes about the women in the life of George Bernard Shaw: “Hence the
name ‘My Fair Ladies’,” Des explains.
“This is something I’ve had in mind for some time – to do something about George Bernard Shaw –
and eventually I was more or less encouraged to do it by Pat Talbot,” he says.
“Shaw is such a huge character and such a multi-faceted person that I didn’t want to just do an
overall view of him and his philosophies and his views on this and that, because he had views on
practically everything.
“So having done some reading, I realised that there were quite a few women in his life and I chose
this as the road I wanted to go down. So I decided to delve a little bit into his life and his personal
relationships with all the various women, and many of them were actresses – a lot of them were
very well-known actresses. So I decided to base the show on that.”
This latest stroke of genius by Des Keogh follows the highly successful show, The Love-Hungry
Farmer, which he adapted from the writing of John B. Keane and performed himself.
“I brought it all over Ireland, to practically every theatre in Ireland. But I also have brought it to the
Edinburgh festival where it had great success. I played it in London and I also brought it to Australia
and played it in America. In fact, it premiered in America.
“So I’ve had a wonderful time with that. I would probably put that down as being the highlight of my
career… so far! Maybe this one will be the highlight!”
My Fair Ladies is about the various women in Shaw’s life, but in a fascinating manner, Des performs
it alone, and talks to the audience about each woman.
“I play the character himself, you see. I play the part of George Bernard Shaw and I’ve grown the
beard and all,” he laughs.
“I am the character himself, talking about his relationships. I don’t impersonate the other women or
anything like that. I’m just talking about the other women. And a lot of the material is taken from
letters that Shaw exchanged with the various ladies, one of the principal ones being Mrs Patrick
Campbell who was the original Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion.”
Shaw fancied himself as a bit of an actor, according to Des, and he loved the theatre and sometimes
directed some of his own plays. But he also loved to read his plays to people and if he wanted a
particular actor or person to appear, he much preferred to read his plays himself rather than have
them read it.
“So I do an excerpt from Pygmalion where Eliza is trying to be a society lady, having been coached to
within an inch of her life by Professor Higgins to speak proper. So I do that sort of thing and that
gives the show, I think, some variety. And I do a couple of little excerpts from some of the plays as
well,” said Des.
Galway, according to Des, is a fantastic location for theatre, thanks to the various venues and the
culture of the city.
“It’s very lively. Immediately Druid springs to mind, which makes Galway very special because of the
incredible work that Druid is doing for those both at home and abroad,” he said.
“But apart from that, I love the Town Hall Theatre. I love going there and I find that there’s a very
good audience, so there’s obviously a terrific interest in theatre in Galway and it’s one of the great
places in Ireland for theatre.”
My Fair Ladies will tour until July, after which Des and his family will be taking a break in Connemara,
where his daughter, a violinist, runs a school; “We go there every year. We love it,” he says.
But despite being at the ripe old age of 80, Des already has plans for his next venture; “I’ve been
asked to do a new play which will start as a lunchtime play in Dublin – a new play by an author called
Malachy McKenna, which is a two-hander – two farmers. The other will be played by a good friend
of mine, Derry Power. So that’ll be the next thing.”
For now though, we’ve got My Fair Ladies to look forward to, and with Des Keogh taking such an
interesting angle on it, this play is bound to be a witty and entertaining way to display a particular
aspect of Shaw’s life.
“Some people think that George Bernard Shaw is sort of high-brow and academic, and some of the
plays are very long and there’s a lot of argument in them. But what I was aiming to do with this one
was to make it an entertaining show. I mean, he was an entertaining character and a man of great
wit and my main purpose, really, was not in any way to educate or to be high-brow. But I hope that
the audience will just come and be entertained by the anecdotes and the angle that I’ve taken on it.”
My Fair Ladies shows at the Town Hall Theatre on 5 and 6 June. Tickets can be purchased for €20/€18
at www.tht.ie.
