Rex Ryan on his new show ‘The Witness’

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The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:39)

Now we are joined by Rex Ryan, founder of Glass Mask Theatre, to discuss his new show, The Witness. Rex, you're very welcome to The Hard Shoulder. I haven't seen The Witness, I must say, but having said that, I've read the reviews and it sounds to me like it is a blistering piece of theatre. Tell me what drew you to the story.

Rex Ryan (1:02)

Well, thanks for having me on firstly, and I think it was just a feeling at the start. There was a lot of talk about the book when it first came out by Nicola, Nicola Talent, and I was in rehearsals for a play and a good friend of mine, she said, I've just read this book. It's absolutely extraordinary and I think you should look at it. I don't know why she posed it to me. Maybe she was thinking about the theatre, but I read Nicola's book and I was astounded by it, and I was really touched, and I was shattered by it, and I was uplifted by it in the end. I thought one of the first thoughts that came to me after the book was, how on earth did that man survive? It's a minor miracle.

Ciara Kelly (1:49)

Do you want to tell the listeners who aren't familiar with the story of The Witness, a little bit of background? Because this is based on a true story, obviously.

Rex Ryan (2:00)

This is the story of Joey O'Callaghan, known as Joey the Lips O'Callaghan. And Joey is and was the youngest person to ever be put into witness protection in Ireland.

So Joey, from a very young age, essentially primary school age, about 11 onwards, was groomed into a gang, and he was systematically abused, sexually, physically, emotionally. And Joey spent many years in the gang, and he was turned into a drug dealer. And The Witness is written by Nicola Tallent, and she did extraordinary journalistic work and research on it, and she was instrumental in helping Joey.

Tell his story, and Joey essentially went into the witness protection. He testified against a man called Brian Kenny and another man called Thomas Hinchin. And Joey survived what was an absolutely impossible situation. So that's his story. And after I'd read it, I had mulled on it and its instinct as well. I thought it could make a spectacular piece of theatre. I thought it could be an important story, and I thought it was a story worth telling.

Ciara Kelly (3:19)

From what I've read about all of this, this guy was a kid who was approached to do a milk round, which like delivering pints of milk, basically to people's homes as many people would have done back in the day. But then ended up being coerced into drugs with the milk. And then, as you say, sexual exploitation, physical exploitation of them and intimidation.

It sounds, considering he went into witness protection as a teenager, like he was trapped in a nightmarish kind of a life, this kid.

Rex Ryan (3:54)

Yeah, I've only done the show twice for two live audiences so far, but I've been uplifted by the response and really touched. And one of the things, as you're alluding to, is that Joey was a kid, a small kid, and he was approached to do a milk round. That could be any of us. And he wasn't in school that day. He had a man with predatorial instincts, got him. And Joey thought, as a young boy, he didn't want to be a gangster. He thought he was going out to do a milk round, and through that, he was introduced to Dylan Harriman. So I think one of the, I've talked to people after the show the last couple of nights, and people spent time outside Glass Mask, and we have a cigarette and chat. And they're strange conversations, because it's not the sort of celebratory atmosphere, usually, after a theatre show. And that's one of the most effecting things is that, and you're looking for that in a piece of theatre or any story when you're, what you're trying to do with the theatre is connect people. And Joey could be your kid, your brother.