After we had created the first production of THE MATCMAKER by John B Keane together, Phyllis Ryan the "doyen' and "grand old Dame" of Irish theatre said that she always thought that The Letters of a Successful TD would make a great show ... Phyllis had commmissioned a script in 2002 which had never made it to production as it had an enormous cast and huge amount of characters. The version was titled "Never Miss a funeral"

When I was discussing projects with Jon Kenny and Mary McEvoy I mentioned it to them ... and we decided it have to have its original book title THE SUCCESSFUL TD and would have to be done with just two actors ... and so... we all began to read it together between matinees' of THE MATCHMAKER in the Gaiety Theatre Dublin in 2015.

A year later - we set a date, and began rehearals and workshops -

All three of us live in different parts of Ireland, so we had to find places to work together for eight consecutive weeks that were relativly equidistant - Birr Theatre & Arts Centre, The Moat Theatre in Nass, Rua Red in Tallaght all gave us rehearsal space and time which made the production possible.

We used both The Letters of A Successful TD and Letters of An Irish Minister of State by John B. Keane as the basis for the show - which was fantastic - but so rich in material that we had enormouns trouble deciding what to actually leave out - sometimes, as we were working on a section - a political "story would break " in the news which was exactly the same as what we were reading in Keane's books which had been written in the late 60's and early 1970's . I recorded all the improvisations and workshops, typed them up in the rehearsal room, or for the next moring and slowly the script emmerged.

Eventually, we laid all the scenes we had written - on the floor in the rehearsal room in Naas, and tried to work out what could physically be done by two actors, doing a massive amount of "quick changes". Instantly we cut at least thirty percent of the material we had worshipped and rehearsed, holding onto a page or so of favourite lines that had not made the first selection hoping to slot them in when we could find room.

We previewed the show in October 2016 in The Honey Fitz Theatre and Community centre near Bruff in Limerick, and it premiered (with some additional scenes (we devloped the week before) and another thirty percent of the material we have been playing - cut) in the Gaiety Theare in February 2017.