All Eyes On 'Eden'

Big-Screen Debut For 'Brian Cowen Country'

By Seán McCarthy - N.U.J.

I've always wondered why the powers that be behind the choices made in depicting Ireland on screen seem to pay constant attention to Galway, Cork and Kerry in their worldwide promotional TV ads and advertising campaigns, yet almost religiously ignore the beauty of other counties in Ireland such as Tipperary, Cavan, Westmeath and Offaly.

Okay okay, the Rock of Cashel often dominates tourism imagery of the midlands of Ireland, but surely there's more going on in the midlands?

Some would argue, of course, saying the midlands of Ireland is just too flat, too dull, and far too featureless to be considered as beautiful as the rugged coastlines of Cork, Kerry, Clare or Galway. But then again, look at Arizona. Flat can be fascinating. Others would fervently protest at the thought that Brian Cowen Country is anything but heaven on Earth in its beauty.

Thankfully, the perception that the midlands of Ireland is not suitable for the big screen has all been utterly shattered now, and the long ignored beauty of County Offaly is suddenly 'heading up' that new vigor to bring the mysterious midlands of Ireland to the forefront of cinema as a viable and beautiful location to shoot.

The birthplace of Taoiseach Brian Cowen, County Offaly has now been stunningly immortalized in the new Irish film EDEN, directed by Offaly native Declan Recks and written by his long-time colleague the Irish writer Eugene O'Brien who also hails from what was once called Kings County after King Philip II of Spain. Don't ask why.

Seeing flat as beautiful, Recks and O'Brien simply found that it made sense to shoot EDEN literally on their home turf of Offaly.

After all, they had worked at home before during the heady days of shooting 'Pure Mule', their award-winning television series.

Here comes a breathtakingly beautiful Irish film produced by the people who brought us the Academy Award-winning independent film 'Once'.

With the success of 'Once' in garnishing the coveted Oscar for 'Best Song' this year, there are of course great expectations for EDEN.

But even if 'Once' had not jolted the Bob Dylan movie 'I'm Not There' (2007) starring Cate Blanchett for the Oscar, once you've seen this new film EDEN, you'll most likely agree that Ireland has a new hit film on its hands.

With EDEN opening here on November 7th in New York at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, 143 East Houston Street on the Lower East Side, I caught up with the film's director Declan Recks, writer Eugene O'Brien and Cork actress Eileen Walsh, whose performances have already won her several major awards including 'Best Actress' at the Tribecca Film Festival 2008. Robert DeNiro is watching.

"We shot EDEN during an Irish summer, and it happened to be the worst Irish summer I think on record" says director Declan Recks.

"It rained for forty-six days straight and we were shooting for only five weeks. And as you know, Irish summers have very long evenings and very little darkness, and our script called for quite a lot of nighttime. But we ended up being pretty lucky with the weather, which is amazing for Ireland!"

EDEN is the screen adaptation of Eugene O'Brien's critically acclaimed, award-winning play of the same name, which was originally staged at the Irish Repertory Theater in New York (managed by Ciarán Reilly and Charlotte Moore).

Set in a thriving midlands town, EDEN tells the story of a week in the lives of Billy and Breda Farrell as they approach their 10th wedding anniversary.

Breda is determined that the milestone will re-ignite the passion in their marriage.

Billy, on the other hand, has developed an obsession with Imelda Egan, a pretty but unobtainable local young thing, and has convinced himself that the coming weekend will see them become lovers under the eyes of everyone.

As the date draws closer, Billy's behaviour becomes more and more chaotic, while Breda's frustrations crystalise and find more mature, high-risk expression.

The film is a further creative collaboration between director Declan Recks, writer Eugene O'Brien and producer David Collins, subsequent to 'Pure Mule', their award winning series for RTÉ television.

The story of EDEN first came to the attention of director Declan Recks in May 2000 when both he and O'Brien were in Los Angeles for a screening of new films by Irish Directors organized by Irish Screen.

Declan was there with a short called 'Quando' while Eugene had written and acted in a short called 'Cold Turkey'.

Over the course of the week they spent there, Eugene told Declan the entire story of EDEN, occasionally acting out large sections.

In 2001, the play was staged to both popular and critical acclaim on the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Indeed, it was the Irish Repertory Theater in New York that staged EDEN.

Since then, it has been performed in London and around the world, and has been translated into ten languages.

Eugene O'Brien came to the attention of TV production company Accomplice TV, where David Collins and Ed Guiney commissioned him to write 'Pure Mule', a six-part television series for RTÉ set in the unique world of the Irish Midlands.

Declan Recks wasn't involved in 'Pure Mule' in the early stages. As Recks recalls: "Eugene would tell me bits and pieces but we decided not to talk too much about it as there were many similarities between it and EDEN, which I was adapting at this stage".

After several drafts, Declan was still not happy with his own adaptation, so he decided to take a break from working on the script.

It was around this time that he was asked to direct the first three episodes of 'Pure Mule' produced by David Collins and Ed Guiney of Accomplice TV.

In 2005, after the success of 'Pure Mule' which was a massive hit on RTE and won five Irish Film and Television awards, EDEN was set up at Samson Films and Eugene O'Brien took over writing duties from Declan Recks and crafted the shooting script.

O'Brien says: "EDEN is about where I'm from, Edenderry, County Offaly. The people are characters that I knew, the events based on stories I'd heard. I wanted to restore the language of the town and the whole innards of that environment where I'm from; and that's where the monologues came from."

EDEN is the story of how two people stop talking to each other. As the film's star Aidan Kelly says, "it's about what happens when you don't pay attention to each other, when a couple becomes caught in the vicious circle of normal day-to-day domesticity, which makes it impossible for them to find any kind of excitement".

The film takes us on a wild and otherworldly journey into the lives and minds of Billy and Breda Farrell, a normal Irish couple in a relationship that is very simple but complex and contradictory at the same time.

"They are normal human beings" O'Brien says. "They've just drifted apart. Stopped talking, stopped communicating, stopped having sex. Breda blames herself for the marriage not being right. Billy blames himself as well... although he would never show it. They love each other, but they don't have the language or emotional honesty to face up to their problem".

The film is shot in anamorphic wide screen, which is a videographic technique that uses rectangular (wide) pixels to store a wide screen image to the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. In other words, everything looks life-like!

In EDEN, the screen comes alive in a breathtaking fashion to expose the glorious Offaly countryside for its true and stunning beauty, as the film's characters engage each other in a strange kind of emotional dance.

Misery and hope, expectation and disappointment, harrowing loneliness and heightening horniness all emerge on the close-shot faces of the movie's stars.

Actress Eileen Walsh is incredible in this film, an eye-opener for sure, and an actress to watch closely now, following the release of EDEN.

Her performance as Breda Farrell is so refreshing and honest that it deserves to have won Best Actress at the Tribecca Film Festival 2008.

"The crux of the problem is that Billy and Breda don't speak, they don't argue, they don't let things out, because they're so frightened of what will come out," says award winning actress Eileen Walsh, who plays Breda to the nines and back again.

The film EDEN is icing on the cake for Cork actress Eileen Walsh right now, as she is also expecting a baby, and is enjoying all the attention her new movie is garnishing.

Breda is a "very simple woman in terms of her needs and aspirations. All she's looking for is contentment and happiness," says Walsh.

"She has no need to go out of the town. She's a small town girl and happy to be that. On the other hand, Billy is a man who has difficulty expressing himself".

"It's a particularly male thing," says director Declan Recks, "not being able to talk about your feelings and your emotions, and Billy is the classic portrayal of that. Billy is every Irish man who cannot find a way of communicating his wants and his needs".

Writer Eugene O'Brien recalls how during the run of the original play, men would come up to him and shake his hand and say, "How did you know that was my life and problems with drink and women?" According to O'Brien, Billy is just a bloke trying to get through the day: "...and, like us all, he has strange weaknesses, regrets and little bouts of madness. And a slight Irish problem called over-reliance on alcohol. Throw all that in the mix and you could have half the men in Ireland".

Adapting EDEN to the screen presented a number of challenges, as O'Brien recalls: "There's advantages and disadvantages of adapting your own material. I'm sure there's stuff I should have let go of or cut, and then at the other end of the stick, you have a deep understanding of the characters that no one else could possibly have of them".

One change from the original play was to make Billy Farrell less articulate.

In the play, he is highly verbal, gregarious, an entertainer, not only as a person, but also because his many thoughts were expressed as a fast-flowing internal monologue.

In the film, Eugene comments, "Billy is a quieter man, he's got a load of stuff going on. He's more of a blank canvas".

The original play EDEN was made up of several monologues in which Billy and Breda talk about the fact that they can't talk to each other... they explain very lucidly how they cannot communicate.

This proved to be a potential difficulty in adapting the play to the screen; O'Brien overcame this by creating an articulate world around Billy, an indirect outward expression of what's going on inside him.

In another deviation from the original play, Billy also gets the chance finally to tell his wife Breda what he really thinks of their relationship in an ending that was partially scripted and partially improvised by the actors.

In the play, the story was very much left up in the air. In the film, we see Billy and Breda being together a lot more as a couple.

We see their relationship still has potential, and there is hope at the end of the nightmare that ensues onscreen.

"So we see the hope," says O'Brien. "We feel the love Billy and Breda really do have for each other, and I think the audience, because they see all of this in the film, would feel completely cheated if Billy just came home and gave up and went up to sleep with his kids ... as he does in the play".