New direction for Little John in Decadent’s ‘Vernon God Little’

One of Galway’s most popular entertainers, Little John Nee takes on a new role next month, when he joins the cast of Decadent Theatre for the Irish premiere of Vernon God Little at the Town Hall Theatre.

This production, based on DBC Pierre’s Booker-winning 2003 satirical novel on American life, is directed by Decadent’s Artistic Director Andrew Flynn, following his recent success with Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, which premiered in Galway before a 50-show tour of Ireland.

This marks the first time John has worked with Decadent – the first time, really, that the writer and performer has ever worked on a theatre show that he hasn’t created himself.

He plays the part of Lally, a conman who befriends the teenage Vernon of the title after the youngster is suspected of being involved in mass shooting at a Texas high school and ends up on a version of death-row, driven by the rules of reality TV.

John also plays another, smaller but integral role as well as being part of the ensemble cast, where members take on multiple roles in the zany, fast-paced stage version, originally performed in London’s Young Vic Theatre in 2007.

“We all play a few parts except for Jarlath [Tivnan] who is Vernon,” John explains on a break from rehearsals. “It’s a very exciting cast, with several people from Fregoli Theatre and people who have worked with Andrew in the past. It’s a very vibrant group and I love the ensemble style of it.”

It’s not the first time John has been asked by other theatre companies to act in their productions, but he’s been busy with his own work until now.

However, he was open to being approached, and admired Andrew’s work, so the time was right. Also, because there is a live band in Vernon God Little – the three-piece Soprano Bats – and music is integral to John’s shows, the fit was a good one.

It is strange, however, to have  to learn lines written by other people and to be working solely as an actor rather than a writer-director.

John’s own musical plays are collaborative, as he works with a team and takes people’s views on board, but this is different.

“With my work, it’s always my vision and now it’s not. But it’s exciting and it’s interesting learning other people’s lines,” he says about the script. That was adapted from the book, which John hadn’t read before signing up for the production. Since then he has read it and listened to the audio-book “to get a handle on it before going into rehearsals”.

While Decadent is using the Young Vic script, Andrew also relies a lot on the book in terms of capturing the story’s feeling, according to John.

“The temptation is to be really slapstick, but the writing is more subtle and Andrew is going for the story and the real humour and satire,” he explains. “Vernon God Little is a contemporary satire about American culture, where a young boy befriends an outsider and is something of an outsider himself.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.