New York Reviews for The Scavenger's Daughter http://www.thescavengersdaughter.org/

"This Irish-Canadian play is truly a remarkable piece of writing, and like many Irish plays it is infused with the tough soul of a 'never say die' attitude. It manages to convey both grit and sentimentality in the same breath, and Magner's delivery is strong and charismatic". (Markus Paminger. New York. 8.25.10. theasy.com)

For Full Review http://www.theasy.com/Reviews/FringeFestival/thescavengersdaughter.php


The New York Times
Thursday, September 9, 2010

"Memory Scavenger

Once in a while a play catches you off guard, throws you into a sort of semi consciousness where you find your own past rolling in to haunt you as you watch the performance unfold before you on the stage. Scavenger's Daughter is that play. Writer/performer Colm Magner has written a semi autobiographical one man show surrounding the details of his brother's death. It's a performance that takes us on a journey down through the years to the very womb mining the brother’s relationship through a series of stories and anecdotes, as he pores over clues that might somehow make sense of his brother’s gradual detachment from reality and slow slide into despair. Magner, a Canadian of Irish descent, slips easily into the authentic brogue of his mother and father, and the Germanic cadence of the local priest painting for us indelible portraits of the forces that shaped the boys' childhood. Magner is a terrific story teller weaving the intricate strands of a life into a cohesive and entertaining tapestry with all the vibrancy insight, humour and vulnerability of the late Spalding Gray. If you need entertainment, if you need a performance that you won't feel like you've wasted your hard eared money, well then this is the play to see. Colm Magner has given voice to his past in a way that leaves me extremely optimistic about his future."

Colin Broderick, Author- "Orangutan: A Memoir", published by Harper Collins, New York

http://theater.nytimes.com/show/24995/NY-International-Fringe-Festival-The-Scavenger-s-Daughter/overview



"The play is dark and irreverent, but never sorrowful or melancholic...Magner is a sharp, vivid storyteller, creating personas for his own character at many different ages. Strong stage presence" (Martin Denton. 8.25.10. New York. nytheatre.com)

For Full Review: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/review_fnyc.php?t=scav10707

THIS IS AN IRISH ARTS CENTRE RECOMMENDED PRODUCTION

http://www.irishartscenter.org/eblasts/082510blast.html

Images and excerpts from NY International Fringe Festival production of ``The Scavenger`s Daughter``, remounted at Poor Mouth Theatre Dec/2010

"And how wondrous it is to think of the vast inner silence, the tiny little mind breathing in every sensation, still tied by tentacle to Gods apron strings, still part of his very fabric, his skin, his blue eyes, his shiny long blonde hair, his light and vigorous Catholic glory..."

"Bye bye boys, don't tell her any lies! You've got to learn to be civilized, you're part of civilization now.

"Who are all you strangers who insist so strenuously that I have a single name, who teach me that up is up and down is down and what is right and what is wrong?"

"I will forget when Finnegan and I had minds like running water. I will forget the magical moments in children’s wonderland, walking across the blowing wheat fields and up to six A.M mass with my Dad. I will forget the silence of that vast church, and the incense, and the white snow on the windows in winter, and the grace of this creature they called God floating in the air who felt, almost, like he could be real. I will forget, that Spring, when the leaves were bursting, and Finnegan was laughing, and we were falling in love for the first time with girls in ragged blue jeans."

"And we begin to swirl around in memory back to...1975. 1975 when two boys on black motorcycles took to these very streets, the beautiful scents of alcohol, sex, and gasoline filling the air, their sixteen year old girlfriends hugging their waists- blonde, brunette, and red-headed giggles on legs. Long long legs which dangled next to the chrome tail-pipes that blasted their “fuck-offs” loud and clear into the redundant houses, the crumbling crucifix atop Mary Lake Monastery…And all around the town the shouts of:
“Wonder!. Wonder! We are alive with wonder!” gathered the ten year olds to the sprinkling manicured lawns, dancing like goblins to the sound of... Ry Cooder, Neil Young, Lou Reed
( Music out)
And behind it all the sweet smell of marijuana lingered like a reminder of Christ’s breath---- dangerous, determined and delirious.
(Pause)
(From centre stage)
“It’s 11 o’clock, do you know where your children are?”

"King City in my recollection had more teenagers in one place than any place I have seen since. On All Hallows Eve we became the seething underbelly of our parents desires; sex filled the air like porridge, adolescent boys spilled out of their homes and into cars looking for sex, violence, liquor, and …TROUBLE."

"The town of King City lies about seven hundred miles from here just north of Toronto along
that great Highway called "the 400". And every day as the cars swoosh by, the dogs who live on the farms beside the highway, watch each other. They watch in the most singular poses...some are stretched out on the cool morning grass, some are yawning. And still others are sleeping and dreaming. Sometimes it is difficult to dream with the sound of the chickens squawking, and the cars swooshing by full of people on their way up to their cottages, and the sound of the little kitties getting run over by transport trucks, but dogs have this amazing capacity to dream and twitch their little paws when all this noise is going on all around them."

"Gravity is something you’ll experience later as you plunge out blue and bleeding into the bright fluorescent lights, into the scent of freshly washed hospital gowns and sweat and blood...and shit"

"It’s really not so bad until you realize, one dark evening, one black Irish night when the fairies are swooning in a mescaline haze, one night when a certain heat overcomes the walls of the womb and your left hand, your tiny left hand, your little pin speck of dust in the Milky May, begins its regular three A.M stretch and you feel…it. Tiny, and so small, you're not even sure it's there.

But, needless to say, there it is."

End of Images. Written and performed by Colm Magner. New York, 2010. Most photos by Dixie Sheridan

"I was staring at myself in the little mirror of the morgue washroom with the scared piss pouring out of me, feeling nauseous from the smell of the antiseptics, feeling pissed at the clinical demeanor of the mortician and all the other little assistants who buzzed in and out of stainless steel doorways so officiously, those doors which open so smoothly and close with such a firm and final click."

Thanks sincerely to all the New Yorker`s who came to see our production of "The Scavenger's Daughter" at FringeNYC in New York City.

We were thrilled with the attendance, as we were with all the fine theatre practitioners from New York City who helped us mount the production- Jim Gaylord, who was a fabulous director to work with, and who pulled the whole production together, and our stage manager Heather Olmstead, who will be a great asset to anyone who hires her.

We were also thrilled to have worked with Don Creedon and Colin Broderick in bringing an encore presentation of Scavenger to the fabulous Poor Mouth Theatre in the Bronx. Poor Mouth is a company started by the talented and critically acclaimed writers Colin Broderick, Don Creedon and Stephen Smallhorne. Don's play "Guy Walks into a Bar" won the Audience Favorite Award at the First Irish Theatre Festival in New York in 2010, and Colin's book "Orangutan" is a moving, beautifully written, and wrenching testament to the resilience of the Irish spirit. All three of these cats, and others, perform new and vital works in the Chris O'Neill Room, the true home of the Irish in the Bronx at An Beal Bocht, owned by Tony Caffrey
 http://www.thescavengersdaughter.org/


Finally, and more importantly, I am deeply grateful to the many people who wrote to me personally and talked of how moved they were by the play. I was moved by you, and what wonderful symbiosis that is!


Please keep your eyes open for "Moonshine Serenade", my new play.


Coming to New York audiences soon!!

All the best,

Colm Magner

Welcome!
For those of you interested in theatre, my Solo Play "The Scavenger's Daughter" has just been accepted by the New York International Fringe Festival Jury for production in August 2010. The play will be staged in New York City as part of the Fringe between August 13th and August 29th this year.
Show Times are:
Thur 8/19@ 5.30PM
Sat 8/21@ 8.30 PM
Tues 8/24@ 4 PM
Wed 8/25@ 10 PM
Sat 8/28@ Noon

4th street Theater
Venue # 4
79 East 4th Street, NY, NY






It would be great to see you there, and I may have a few new pipes in my pocket as well!


Visit www.thescavengersdaughter.org to see details about the show.

And visit www.fringenyc.org to see all the other fabulous shows at this years FringeNYC!

Mugs

President and CEO of Colm Magner Pipes and Jewellery

This piece is approximately one inch tall.

Metamorphosis in Blue (3 angles)

Sterling Box (hinge and entire box completely hand-made), containing a Pearl Pendant

Blue Lace Agate

Hand Hammered Sterling Silver Bracelet with matching ring

Freeform tobacco pipe. Completely hand-made. Hand-cut stem with lucite insert. Plateaux Briar.Natural finish.

Freeform tobacco pipe. Completely hand-made from stem to bowl. Idea? Whale Series--beach, cliffs, sand , and coral.