And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon by Mark Kilmurry

Mark Kilmurry has gone for an out of the ordinary approach to creating new work with his latest play, And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon.

With this play Kilmurry has used the British auteur Mike Leigh approach to theatre making. This involves the writer/director working closely with the actors on developing the script whilst still maintaining his authorial stamp on the work.

For his team Killmurry chose Catherine Moore and Jamie Oxenbould, the two actors he worked with previously in his quirky piece, You Talkin’ To Me - Diary Of An Olympic Cabbie (a success when it played the Ensemble in 2008), together with Ensemble regular, Michael Ross.

And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon is set around the rooms of new age therapist Barnaby Johnson (Michael Ross). Samantha (Catherine Moore) and Gavin (Jamie Oxenbould) are two of his regular clients. One day, they start talking to each other in his waiting room, find that they have a rapport, and start going out with each other. It isn’t long before their relationship strikes some problems, and in an ironical twist, they begin going to see Barnaby for couple counselling.

It’s a quirky storyline and, out of it, the team has come up with some lively and insightful theatre. The three characters are well formed and performed; Michael Ross’s careful, sensitive therapist, Catherine Moore’s hyper, ambitious Samantha, and Jamie Oxenbould’s prevaricating Gavin. A big plus was making Samantha’s character a singer, as it gave Moore the chance to show off her gutsy voice with some great torch singing.

The piece was well structured, the writing incisive, crisp, humorous at times, and features some clever one liners. An example is Samantha’s comment to Gavin, ‘I can tell when people’s attention is wandering. I’ve sung at RSL clubs!’.

This work was a refreshing addition for a theatre company that generally puts on plays which have already received recognition.

A world premiere, And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon plays the Ensemble until the 19th September.

David Kary