Declan Brennan - Voice Over - Actor

Welcome to this collection of some of the things to which I’ve applied my voice and some of the drama which has helped me explore the craft of acting.

The voice work has a short, sharp commercial focus while the dramatic work is wider and inevitably more long winded! But I hope you’ll find something of interest and something to enjoy in these pages.

If you think I could play a role in one of your projects, please contact me or give me a call.

Advertising samples on the Commercials page include recent work for Audi (TV and Radio), DAA (Radio), NSAI (Radio and Online), Bord Gáis (TV and Radio), National Lottery (Radio), Johnson & Johnson (Radio), Emergency Response (TV), Peugeot (TV and Radio) and World Vision Ireland (Radio).

The Narration page includes a video tutorial for the 'Your Country Your Call' website (a national ideas competition under the patronage of the President of Ireland), a recent corporate video for NSAI, a promotional video about an architectural development proposal for a group of architects and developers made by Mike Smyth Productions and a documentary piece about the great Dublin Exhibition of 1907, produced by Bill Felton.

 

'Game of Thrones' is a medieval fantasy series created for television and produced by HBO in the United States. Together with several other actors, I did some ADR voice work at Ardmore Studios in Bray as part of the post-production that was completed for the series in Dublin. The characters we covered speak in English and Dothraki, the language spoken by the inhabitants of the Dothraki Sea. The adaptation is based on the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' novels by George R. R. Martin and the first episode went out on Sky Atlantic in April 2011, the day after its premiere in the US. The stars include Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey among others and the production values are very high. While its visceral nature makes it not one for the children, it's definitely one for lovers of big, epic stories in a fantasy world.

Details on some recent appearances are covered below, including 'All My Sons' and 'Unoriginal Sin' at the Mill Theatre, King Creon in the National Library, Patrick Pearse in the National Library, National Museum and Liberty Hall and the Cardinal Inquisitor in Brecht's 'The Life of Galileo' in Dublin.

I’ll let the voice speak for itself in the sample audio files, which you can listen to or download as MP3 files on the other pages. If for some reason you can’t hear them, or you need a written description, here’s a word picture to put them in context.

The voice is acoustically low to mid range; musically baritone, with a colour palette ranging from dark brown cello to golden tenor sax; geographically Irish with an accent whose compass can swing west to the US and east to the UK; it speaks with convincing authority and switches to soothing, warm tones when the occasion calls – it commands attention and above all is believable.

But, if you can, have a listen to the samples under Commercials, Narration and Acting.

 

'Unoriginal Sin'

Mill Theatre, April 2011

This comedy written by David Tristram and directed by Brian Molloy is in the Mill Theatre, Dublin the week after Easter (26 to 30 April 2011).

In this hilarious comedy, Eve dreams of buying Eden cottage and garden, but paradise is in the hands of its two divorcing serpentine owners and the games they play!

This play was described by its creator as "the comedy with a little extra bite", perhaps because of its biting wit and the fact that it has some wry commentary on the human condition, if you're open to it. I play the main character, Bill, an author whose romantic novels have earned him great financial success, but not a whole lot more. When you add in his wife, with whom he trades insults, his lawyer friend Miles who is arranging their divorce, the younger Eve, who catches his eye, her nerdy, librarian boyfriend Neville and her 'father', Fr Tomlin, you've got a cast of characters with a tale to tell that's full of great lines and lots of fun.

 

'Seachtar na Cásca'

broadcast by TG4 from Sept 2010

A bi-lingual historical documentary series, directed by Dathai Keane, on the seven men who signed Ireland's 1916 Easter Proclamation began on the Irish TV channel, TG4 starting on Wednesday 22 September 2010. It went into producation by Abú Media in the second half of 2009.

The seven episodes in the series cover Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, Sean Mac Diarmada, Eamonn Ceannt, Thomas Clarke and Thomas McDonagh.

I worked on two minor roles in the first two programmes. Episode 1 features the story of the "Father" of the Rising - Tom Clarke. I was a British Prison Warden in that first episode. The shoot was in Kilmainham Jail in November 2009 - a cold, bleak location that sets the scene for the stories that unfold. In Episode 2, I played one of two Dublin gentlemen, in James Connolly's kitchen, being persuaded by him to join his new Socialist party.

The series, which was narrated by Brendan Glesson, was broadacst in the autumn of 2010 and ran for 7 weeks.

Five months before this series began on Irish TV screens, I played one of those seven men, Patrick Pearse, in Eugene McCabe's 'Pull Down a Horseman'. The play was presented by Dublin Lyric Players in April 2010 (details below).

 

O'Casey play for Five Lamps Festival

Dublin - April 2010

As part of the Five Lamps Festival, Dublin Lyric Players presented 'Within the Gates' a play by Sean O’Casey that has been rarely produced.

The play is an intriguing, experimental and expressionist work, written while the author was still in his most recognisably creative phase, during the late 1920s. The title comes from the location of the action - around Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park - during the four Seasons of the year.

The life of a Young Woman is gradually unfolded through her interactions with the visitors to the Park, including the atheist character that I play. As she stumbles through the seasons of her own life. O’Casey paints the broadest of human canvases in bold colours.

The performances were from Sunday 25 April to Saturday 1 May in the Larkin Room, Liberty Hall.

 

1916 Rising explored in Liberty Hall - April 2010

Also as part of the Five Lamps Festival, 'Pull Down a Horseman' by Eugene McCabe was presented by Dublin Lyric Players from at lunchtime each day. It is a short play that runs for about 40 minutes.

Written by Eugene McCabe to commemorate the 1916 Rising, this short play was first performed in April 1966. In it, Eugene McCabe, probably best known for his play 'The King of the Castle', takes an interesting look at two central figures in the Easter 1916 Rising - James Connolly and Patrick Pearse, the character I play.

'Pull Down a Horseman' is about a private meeting between Pearse and Connolly in January 1916 where they discuss, debate, argue and verbally joust with one another over whether and when to go ahead with the Rising. They were two very different characters - intellectually well matched, but with very different political philosophies and perspectives. While the play is based on historical research, no one knows for certain what happened at this meeting.

I last played Pearse in this play in the National Library during April 2007. Later that year in the fine Palatine Room of the National Museum, Collins Barracks, Dublin we performed the play where the forces these two characters opposed once dined, celebrated and entertained. It added a strong sense of history, a celebration of the past and a touch of irony that was not lost on one elderly member of the audience who commented that "some auld spirits were turnin in their graves as you two brought Pearse and Connolly back to life in here tonight"!

 

'The Life of Galileo' - Dublin, July 2009

The performance space in the headquarters of The Office of Public Works in St Stephen's Green, Dublin, was the venue for a production of Bertolt Brecht's 'The Life of Galileo' presented by Dublin Lyric Players

The International Year of Astronomy (2009), was marked by many events throughout the year. The Italian scientist and philosopher Galileo Galilei was a key figure in these celebrations. He turned a telescope to the skies 400 years ago and made a series of significant discoveries that were the foundation of modern astronomy.

My character in 'The Life of Galileo' was the Cardinal Inquisitor. He is a pragmatic, but sinister and very political prince of the church, who argues for the full rigours of the Inquisition to be brought to bear on Galileo when his scientific discoveries are seen to be in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The play explores the powerful influences of science and religion on society together with Galileo's personal struggle with the choices he made.

 

Greek Tragedy in the National Library, Dublin

The National Library and Dublin Lyric Players joined forces to stage the W. B. Yeats translations of two of Sophocles Greek Tragedies. I played King Creon in 'Oedipus Rex' and 'Oedipus at Colonus' in the National Library, on Kildare Street, Dublin.

The performances were part of the W. B. Yeats exhibition in the National Library. They represented a rare opportunity to see these translations by Yeats performed in the kind of intimate, almost drawing room setting that he envisaged.

Three of Sophocles' plays, the ones that are often referred to as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle, are about Oedipus and Antigone. Although written later than 'Antigone', 'King Oedipus' and 'Oedipus at Colonus' concern events leading up to the final story of Antigone and her sister Ismene. Despite their age, these plays have many of the ingredients we still look for today in good storytelling - the drama of a good soap opera, the structure and poetry of a Shakespearean tale and the blood, sweat and tortured relationships of a Tarantino movie.

 

Other acting roles, with some sample audio files, are listed on the Acting page.