Graham McMonagle designs Wild Rovers' playful and improbable adventuring

11 Oct 2023 - photos courtesy of Graham McMonagle

From "green alligators and long-necked geese/Some humpy-back camels and some chimpanzees/Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born/You're never gonna see no unicorn" to "Could have been the whiskey, might have been the gin/Could have been three or four six-packs/I don't know, but look at the mess I'm in," The Irish Rovers have been part of the soundtrack of Canadian coming of age for over 50 years. Every musical act that endures that long is honoured with a jukebox musical, so the music of The Irish Rovers is now The Wild Rovers: "a mad-cap adventure that sees a famed band whisked away to a fantastical land on the brink of war and the loveable, hard-working band must help find a path to peace through song." Curiosity piqued, and with both songs earwormed like hot glue into my brain, I got some crucial information about The Wild Rovers from the production designer, Graham McMonagle.

Drew Rowsome: The show is set in a “fantastical land.” How do you make the unreal appear real? 

Graham McMonagle: The beautiful notion of this play, and one that continuously evolved in the conversation between me and Jason Byrne, the director, centered around perceptions of reality and the power of imagination. It’d be vain to say that this play rejects artifice in favour of artfulness, but I think that’s part of what it does. It is candid, heartfelt, but never contrived. It’s just . . . dreams in a cardboard box.

Did The Irish Rovers, their music or their TV show, have any influence on you in your childhood or youth? Did their aesthetic have an influence on The Wild Rovers? 

Graham McMonagle: I think that early script development, particularly the work of our writer Steve Cochrane, really relates to the mad-cap musical and theatrical aesthetic of the Rovers’ TV shows. Our show is, it’s true, a magical journey to and through a fantastical land, but the playful, comedic notion that exists in the TV shows suggests a less directly narrative approach than might be expected. The Wild Rovers shares with the Irish Rovers’ shows, Sesame Street, and Scooby Doo a sense of playful and improbable adventuring. Our show, like those other childhood references of my own, shares an imaginative approach to magical suggestion through analogue theatre making.

Puppets are promised. How much can you tell us about them without it being a spoiler? Is there any connection to Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop who were regular guests on the Irish Rovers’ TV show? 

Graham McMonagle: Lamb Chop! Never a bad time for Lamb Chop! With care, I oughta not spoil too much, but it’s fair to say that there are layers of puppetry – literal, playful, abstract – in the show, all hopefully inviting audiences’ imaginations to forge connections with the work. There is representational shadow puppetry, object substitution and animation, and visible mechanisms that all work together to create live puppet storytelling. Is it difficult to design in this way? 

Is it more difficult to design sets and costumes to accommodate puppets?

Graham McMonagle: Nah, the challenge is the joy of it.

What Irish Rovers songs were you familiar with? What ones did you have to research with a pint of Guinness? 

Graham McMonagle: Beverage consumption as immersive research! I support this new research methodology. The Rovers’ songbook is comprehensive – I didn’t begin this project as an expert by any means. Certainly, "The Unicorn," "Lily the Pink," "Donald Where's Your Trousers," and "Wasn’t That a Party" were familiar, just as "Black Velvet Band" and "Molly Bawn" existed in the landscape for me. Of course, each deserves its own immersive research process . . . and in that, I’ll endeavor to be a dedicated researcher. 

What songs have now become personal favourites? Because of the show or because of the song itself? 

Graham McMonagle: Co-musical directors Josh Ward and Kelly- Ann Evans’ ingenious and witty arrangements of the songs themselves really transformed them for me, so each in their way becomes a favourite. There are certainly new associations with the music because of the staging – "The Unicorn," in particular, has all sorts of new and deeper meaning for me, as does "Black Velvet Band."

This is a family show and The Irish Rovers biggest hit “The Unicorn” is a family friendly song. Does The Wild Rovers at least acknowledge the symbolism and queer meaning of unicorns? 

Graham McMonagle: I love this question and love the platform it (and the show) offers. I mean, I want to live in a world where “family show” and queer symbols and meanings can operate, incautiously, together. In this instance, "The Unicorn," the song itself, isn’t particularly anthemic, nor is its symbolism laboured, but the sign remains. Thematically, the whole show is about transcendence of boundaries. It’s not a production about representation, it’s about humans. But we’re there: you can see us, hear us, and celebrate with us.     

How did you, studying in Victoria, wind up on the other side of the country in Newfoundland designing the production of The Wild Rovers? 

Graham McMonagle: Airplanes. And odd layovers in YYZ. That’s how I wound up in Newfoundland. This isn’t my first time working with St John’s based Terra Bruce Productions, who’ve created this show. I first heard about The Wild Rovers from their production manager, Brendan Agnew, who asked if I might like to zoom-meet Jason Byrne, the director of an upcoming Irish Rovers musical in development. Although the distance is real, early conversations foretold a really great project. Travel and time change pale in comparison with the privilege of doing work one enjoys. 

Not to stereotype but, McMonagle seems to imply Irish or Scottish heritage. Was that an advantage for your work on the show? 

Graham McMonagle: McMonagle does indeed imply Irish heritage, and it’s not a stage name (who can pronounce it, anyway?). Yes, my grandfather emigrated from Ireland, and there is also Scottish heritage on my mother’s side. In a way, my relationship with my own heritage and that of the Irish Rovers makes for easy participation with the work, but I’d have to say that the things that made this production such a joy in the working was the multiple perspectives of the team. The humanity of the company is really our greatest advantage. 

You are a Renaissance man with a career that covers most aspects of theatre, all while working on a PHD in theatre history. Why did you move from dance to design? Where do you hope to focus? 

Graham McMonagle: You know, it’s all about the pleasure of asking myself questions to which I don’t know the answers. That’s present in the doctoral research in theatre history at the University of Victoria, looking at the relationship of image and commodification in 19th century dance performance. How did that all work? Design for theatre grew, early in my career as a dancer, out of the same kinds of questions. We, as dancers, were animating and embodying designed contexts – how did the relationship between those things work? What else could happen? Focus? I think everyone around me wishes I would, you know, focus. I love theatre, the conversations between audiences and performances, the liberty to speak in those contexts. Wherever the journey goes, I hope to get to continue asking questions to which I don’t know the answers. 

The Wild Rovers has already had a run in St John’s. How did audiences react? Do you think that jaded Toronto theatre snobs will react differently? 

Graham McMonagle: Wild Rovers had a wonderful response from audiences in St John’s from a broad range of people and demographics. I’ve had the pleasure of being in the house often over the St John’s run and found it interesting to see different people’s responses. For some, the implicit nostalgia of the musical material seems to have resonated particularly; for others, the vivid humanity and humour of the performed narrative made connections. Of course, I loved those that responded to “my” little scenographic bits, but most of all, I was surprised by the diversity of (assumed) perspectives towards performance that responded positively to our show. Of course, if one wants to go the theatre and find something to loathe, I’m happy to try and to provide that as well. By all means, feel free to come see Wild Rovers planning to hate it . . . but I bet you won’t.