With theatre/film/opera hybrid ‘The Last Hotel’ hitting Sky Arts on Monday, April 11th – we talk to Irish producer Juliette Bonass about the critically acclaimed production.
‘The Last Hotel’ is the brainchild of playwright and scriptwriter Enda Walsh (‘Hunger’) as well as composer Donnacha Dennehy. The opera – a dark tale chronicling an Irish woman encountering an English couple at a hotel - has so far performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival as well as the International Edinburgh Festival to highly positive reviews; The Irish Times, The Times in England and The Guardian are among the productions’ champions.
The film version is a result of the Sky Arts Amplify Scheme – spearheaded by Phil Edgar Jones – which was set up to encourage arts organisations and production companies to pitch collaboratively for up to €1,250,000 annually on new TV ideas for the channel.
“Sky Arts are amazing because they are so dedicated to consistently bringing innovative projects to broadcast”, says Bonass. “Working with Phil Edgar Jones and Commissioning Editor Barbara Lee was fantastic as they made the whole thing so seamless - I think they were really happy with ‘The Last Hotel’ as it was perfect for what they were looking for with this scheme so they were completely on board.”.
The young producer is very much on the rise in the film industry in Ireland and beyond, a fact cemented by her being one of only 20 “Producers On The Move” selected by the EFP at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. In addition to the Domhnall Gleeson helmed short films ‘Noreen’ and ‘What Will Survive of Us’, Juliette also co-produced with Ed Guiney Gerard Barrett’s critically acclaimed 2015 feature ‘Glassland (starring Jack Reynor, Toni Colette and Will Poulter), as well as Brendan Grant’s comedy ‘Get Up & Go’, starring Peter Coonan and Killian Scott.
For ‘The Last Hotel’ filmed for Sky Arts and produced by Bonass along with Anne Clarke of Landmark Productions and Fergus Sheil of Wide Open Opera - Bonass has walked into unchartered territory – not just for her but for any producer, where the worlds of theatre, opera and film collide.
“That is kind of what attracted to me to it”, continues Bonass. “It’s completely different to anything I had ever done before. But I thought this would be something I could do and a great opportunity to learn more about the production of opera and theatre in the meantime.”
Another integral element in Juliette coming on board was the name Enda Walsh. “I was always a massive fan of his like the entire country….and the rest of the world”, laughs Bonass. “So, I was very excited to be working with him, as well as Donnacha (Dennehy). The cast and crew were fantastic too as well as Crash Ensemble – the amazing orchestra.”
‘The Last Hotel’ – starring Claudia Boyle, Robin Adams, Katherine Manley and Walsh’s long-time collaborator, actor Mikel Murfi - was a very fast turn-around, with Bonass coming on board in August 2015. The Dublin Theatre Festival was the next month and filming took place at the live performance there with additional scenes filmed at Bray Head Hotel in the following months.
Did such a fast turn-around coupled with the unfamiliar amalgamation of forms provide any daunting moments for Bonass at all?
“I completely trusted Enda’s vision”, says Bonass, whose next film is Darren Thornton’s ‘A Date for Mad Mary’ – produced with none other than Ed Guiney of Element Pictures (‘Room’). “Rather than being daunting – I think it was more exciting than anything else to bring these three worlds’ together and create a new form. The way we chose to tell the story really allowed us to explore the psychological turmoil of the characters. It allowed Enda to play around with altered states of reality – their internalized voices are screaming out in a way that would be impossible in any other form other than the one we have chosen.”
‘The Last Hotel’ will air on Sky Arts on Monday, April 11th at 9pm. It will also be available on Sky TV's On Demand service. Stay tuned to IFTN for interviews with writer Enda Walsh and Phil Edgar Jones of Sky Arts.
