Father and son play replicate real life on stage

Father and son characters in Navan Theatre Group’s production this week are been played by a real-life father and son. Mick Roban and his son Paul are playing Dan and Kevin in Bernard Farrell’s ‘Kevin’s Bed’, running in Solstice Arts Centre this week.
‘Kevin’s Bed’ is a witty and fast moving comedy, centring on Dan and Doris and their two sons, John and Kevin. This play has an odd mix of characters all with their own story and Farrell give us a glimpse into all their lives as he moves them in and out of the plot. John certainly is an interesting character with a secret. We have the neighbour Betty who is with John and is wistfully recalling her time in Kevin’s Bed. There is the glamorous Pauline who has a penchant for husbands and all in good taste. Kevin has his own family present and his Italian wife Maria and impish daughter Cecily certainly add to the family tensions. The play even has a ‘dumb waiter’ that rattles into life with superb yet appalling comic timing to interrupt rare intimacies between Dan and Doris. This surely is a party to remember.
Mick and Paul Roban are no strangers to theatre. Mick has played comedy roles and does some writing and Paul as well as acting, writes documentary films. Mick is ‘proud and honoured’ to be acting alongside his son. However their stage characters Dan and Kevin are not such easy bedfellows and audiences will enjoy the banter between the sardonic Dan and his hapless son, Kevin.
Des Lynch directs this year and he is well known in Navan for his many roles with St Mary’s Musical Society and Navan Theatre Group. His major theatre roles include Fluter in ‘The Plough and the Stars’, Bird O’Donnell in ‘The Field’, Mick Galvin in ‘Sive’ and Capt Lancey in ‘Translations’.
This year the cast is a lively group, many of whom are known to Navan Theatre Group audiences - Nigel Ryan, Ciara Cassoni, Deirdre Doyle, while Mick and Paul Roban, Paula Gibney, Ann Fleming and Ciara O’Donoghue are newcomers. ‘Kevin’s Bed’ runs until Saturday 22nd November in Solstice Arts Centre at 8pm.