Playhouse to bring acclaimed Jazz production for festival debut
24 April 2025
The City of Derry Jazz Festival swings into town once again over the May Bank holiday with a stellar line up of talent all set to celebrate jazz in all its forms.
The Playhouse is just one of a number of dedicated Jazz Hubs with its own festival line up, and this year the theatre is bringing a new jazz experience to audiences in the form of the intriguingly titled ‘No Citation’.
The play is written by musician and song-writer Kyron Bourke who is a familiar face on the local Jazz circuit. Originally from Dublin, Kyron moved to Belfast in 1992, initially for three months to play in Larry's Piano Bar, and decades later he can still be found holding court at weekends as Music Curator of the popular Bert’s Jazz Bar in the Merchant Hotel.
The play premiered at the Lyric Theatre Belfast before a successful run in Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre, but Kyron is looking forward to bringing the production for the first time to Derry, and a new audience at Ireland’s biggest jazz celebration.
This unique theatrical and musical event combines powerful storytelling with original jazz compositions, following the story of Jeremy d'Wolfe McCarthy, a legendary piano man facing his final judgment. Finding himself in the derelict Dimitri's Piano Bar, McCarthy attempts to entertain with his latest songs but is haunted by ghosts from his past. As he realizes this may be his final performance, he desperately tries to set the record straight.
Born into a theatrical and literary family in Dublin, transitioning from music to drama was a natural process for Kyron, as he revealed ahead of the festival. “My father, from a prominent theatrical family in Dublin, was an actor and my mother was an opera singer. My father‘s cousin was Brendan Behan. Basically everybody in the family either danced or acted, directed and produced plays or wrote them, so from an early age I was immersed in the process,” he reflects.
“I had written before, mainly reviews for theatre companies that I worked for and once as a result of a bursary from the Royal Court, London. A few years ago, I wrote a play about a famous alcoholic Shakespearean actor who had died and was looking back over his life.
“I workshopped the play and the general consensus was that I should write about subject matter closer to my own experience. So, I took this advice on board and decided to write about a piano man who has passed over. My piano man was similar to the protagonist in the first play, except for the fact that the piano man had not really achieved a lot as far as fame was concerned. But in terms of abusing alcohol and substances he was the same and was possessed of an equally enormous ego.”
While the show features original songs penned by Kyron, and delivered by a fabulous line up of accomplished jazz musicians, it won’t just appeal to hard core jazz fans.
“The play has 10 or so songs and incidental music throughout but there’s also a good deal of dialogue and a compelling story line. The style of the music is jazz but in no way is it hard-core jazz. It’s a good introduction for non jazzers. For those who feel that jazz is not for them the music and songs in ‘No Citation’ would be a good starting point.”
Over his time at Bert’s Kyron has been immersed in the local jazz scene and is seeing a new wave of talent shaking up the industry. “The scene has changed quite a lot over the past 30 years,” he explains. “The calibre of musicianship of the young musicians coming up is astonishing. I guess there’s better training in place. It’s a very a vibrant scene - very exciting. “Events like the City of Derry Jazz Festival provide an opportunity for those artists to connect with new audiences and the more jazz festivals the better as far as I am concerned. “The Derry Jazz Festival is unique because there are already superb international standard jazz musicians living in and around Derry and I imagine this ever-present core of homegrown jazz musicians drives the desire to seek out genuine jazz international acts and not just random music acts. I always feel there’s a good cross section of jazz styles at the Derry Festival, so there is something for everybody.”
Musician, broadcaster and academic, Dr Linley Hamilton, who recently picked up an MBE for services to music, plays one of an impressive cast of characters that appear in silhouette throughout the production to take Jeremy on a musical odyssey in his final moments. Linley has worked closely with Kyron over the years and is looking forward to collaborating once again, as he explained. “Kyron is the real deal when it comes to music. He’s an amazing vocalist and a brilliant song-writer and it’s an absolute joy to work with him again on this project. He has a passion that proves that music isn’t about how you write it – it’s how you can make people feel.
“Kyron is one of those musicians where you just press the button and he’s in a different world and he takes you along with him. As an artist he’s completely selfless in that he gives performers room to play which is unusual. He provides musicians with the opportunity to play to the maximum – it’s not about him, and that’s very rare I this industry. Here in N. Ireland there’s a very small domestic market when it comes to jazz, there are only a few dedicated venues and opportunities to perform are rare. But the way he works pays dividends because performers respond to him what you get is something completely unique and authentic.”
The City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival is organised and funded by Derry City and Strabane District Council with support from Diageo and EY.
You can catch ‘No Citation’ at the Playhouse on Thursday May 1st at 8pm. Tickets costing £25/Concession £22, are available at www.derryplayhouse.com