Goodbye 2013

It is the end of a productive few months of work on the Strindberg Project. We have said our goodbyes for Christmas but are excited to let rip in Rathmines in a few weeks time.

Tucked away in the office, Maeve and I spent the last week making preparations with the production team for January’s Work in Progress showing and also doing a lot of final script work. There was editing, axing, transcribing and writing, along with some belting of Christmas songs to keep us in good spirits.

It was a week of long hours and hard work but also full of productivity and fun. We managed to get a lot done in a short number of days and I think we were both proud of what we had achieved by the end of the week. GO TEAM!

On Friday, we had a Christmas themed script read-through to celebrate the end of the year and to give everyone involved in the project the chance to check in with each other before the holidays.

We were a little bit excited about decorating the office…

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT FOR EVERYONE!

Mulled wine, minced pies, fairy lights, tacky tinsel and cheesy Christmas tunes. Throw some scripts into the mix along with a group of great people and the result is a very delightful afternoon.

Sitting around a table with actors reading the script we had been working on all week made everything feel a little bit more real. This is happening.

We have been working on the Strindberg Project for a few months now and I can’t wait to see how things unfold in the New Year. There is a real sense that anything can happen, that everything is there to be experimented with and played with. I am very excited to be a part of that process and to see where the journey takes us.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

2014, we are ready for you!

Fionnuala x

'Silent' - Review

The question of a production’s “relevance” is usually at the forefront of theatrical discussion, particularly when it comes to the National Theatre. The relevance of Silent is undeniable, giving voice to the hundreds of faceless sleeping bags we pass on the street every day. Written and performed by Pat Kinevane, this one-man show is a powerful piece of theatre, embracing the less shiny parts of our society that we would sometimes rather not see or acknowledge.

Directed by Jim Culleton of Fishamble, this production has been touring both nationally and internationally since 2011, currently making a return to the Peacock Theatre. The piece follows the life-path of Tino McGoldrig, a homeless man engulfed by depression and alcoholism. The play bounces effortlessly between humor and anguish but ultimately forces us to look deep within ourselves as members of society, questioning the prejudices regarding mental health, suicide and homelessness in this country. At one stage, Kinevane asks the audience directly if anybody is currently or has ever taken anti-depressants? There is a squirming discomfort as patrons sink further into their chairs, rather than admit such things to a room full of strangers.

Pat Kinevane’s performance is majestic and effortless, incapable of being justified by words alone. It is the experience of being present with a single body in space that infiltrates the soul of the audience member. Skilfully fusing poignancy with moments of heightened drama, such as expressive and seductive movement pieces or caricatures of the monsters of his past- Tino reconstructs significant events of his life: the suicide of his brother who was branded “a faggot,” his marriage, the birth of his son and his spiral into depression. It is the reliving of such moments and the embodiment of characters from his past that further remind us of the isolation and loneliness surrounding homelessness.

While such moments are harrowing, the production never depends on these to emotionally manipulate its audience and Kinevane’s comedic capabilities are equally significant throughout the performance to deliver an important message. Denis Clohessy’s clever sound composition conjures distinct images of space and time, flitting between memories of the past but always plummeting us back to the present through the piercing sound of coins hitting the bottom of the jar. It is nothing less than a privilege to spend an evening with Pat Kinevane in the national theatre, watching such an important issue being dealt with the utmost delicacy. Informing us that the main cause of homelessness in Ireland is mental health issues, Silent plants in us a seed of social awareness. Tino McGoldrig is a man who once had “splendid things,” who might have even gone to the theatre to watch a play. In the programme, Kinevane states, “It could be you whose own mind torments itself. It could be you who was born into neglect and cruelty. It could be us… at the toss of a coin.”

Running in the Peacock Theatre from 6th of November- 7th of December 

Reviewed:  9^th of November 2013, for TN2 Magazine.

The Journey Begins- 'The Red Room'

What a joy it is to open one’s email and find ‘Hey, want to make some theatre?’

Ok…it may not have been phrased in that exact way but some weeks ago, during a time where I was eager to get my teeth stuck into an interesting project, I received an email out of the blue that seemed to hear my cry. The email was marked “AD” and was from Maeve Stone whom I had worked with the previous year on Pan Pan’s Everyone is King Lear in is Own Home. Maeve was someone I had hoped to work with again as I felt we shared similar attitudes towards theatre and I really admired her creative approach. She asked if I would be interested in being her assistant director on a ‘site-specific/non traditional’ piece based on Strindberg’s The Red Room and I didn’t need to be asked twice. 

The adventure began…

In our first meeting, Maeve informed me of her growing interest in Scandinavian drama and culture and what drew her to this particular text. Having not read the novel before, she explained the central ideas, and I was immediately struck by how relevant the piece was within an Irish context today, exploring themes such as unemployment, corruption and the crisis of identity. I was especially interested in her choice to work on a Strindberg text, with the emphasis on dreams being central to the work. This would allow for a more surrealist and experimental exploration of the text, something I think was important to both Maeve and I from the beginning of the process.

During our initial conversations, we discussed the importance of finding the right space (a difficult task), and how this space would ultimately inform and shape what the piece would become. One Wednesday afternoon, we visited some spaces and went on what seemed like a manhunt to find the guy who knew the guy who knew the girl who might have a number for that guy who possibly had connections to that office.  Rest assured, it all worked out in the end!

What excited me most about this project was Maeve’s adamancy that she didn’t want to rush the process, but instead give it space and time to breathe. While our first showing will be a work in progress in January, the adventure will hopefully continue late into next year. I believe that giving a piece the time to grow is one of most crucial elements of creating new work and I am excited to see how the seed of this idea will morph and change during the development process. Only time will tell…

Watch this space.

F.

Night Light - The experience of collaboration

Devising theatre is a tricky process. Any of us that have taken the risk and plunged ourselves into the pit of uncertainty that comes with collectively trying to create a new piece of work will understand how this type of process is energy-consuming, anxiety-riddled and at times frustrating. However, it is also undoubtedly one of the most rewarding ways of creating as it involves constant play, experimentation and ensemble work as well as an enormous amount of trust in the people you are working with.

Having being involved in a number of devised pieces, I have learnt that it is a process that fluctuates from day to day, week to week. The initial seed of a production can morph or change into an entirely different show in the space of a few hours, and that in itself is exciting, but also terrifying. While trusting the process can be challenging at times, it is a belief in the work that allows an idea to eventually find it’s feet and become something that everyone involved can be proud of. While one rehearsal can leave a cast feeling elated and creatively stimulated, the next can plummet them back into anxiety where no one is sure what the hell they are doing. 

Two months ago, I began rehearsals for a new devised piece called Night Light with Wishful Thinking, a company created by the talented Ilo Tarrant, a lighting designer and recent drama graduate from Trinity. Ilo was eager to explore the mourning process that comes with the loss of childhood and our realization or denial of such a loss as adults.

Cast alongside an incredibly energetic and creative group of people, Venetia Bowe, Fionn Foley and Richard Durning, this was a process that I believed in from the beginning. While each of us entered rehearsals relatively blindly, not knowing what an earth we were going to create, there was a ‘let’s do this thing’ mentality which sustained for the entire creative process.

The last 8 weeks have consisted of endless hours of game playing, storytelling, memory sharing, fort building, improving, more improving, discussing, imagining, trinket making, writing and re-discussing, along with an abundance of hard work and creativity. It has been one of the most hands on and active rehearsal processes that I have ever been involved in, with each person taking equal responsibility for the creation of the show, injecting it with an enormous amount of imagination and devotion. That has been immensely rewarding to be a part of.

Like any process, it hasn’t always been easy. Alongside the peaks and the excitement, there have been slumps and doubts, moments where the opening night seemed like an unreachable finish line. However, by trusting the process and powering through the slumps, the initial seed that was planted weeks ago has gradually grown and been shaped into a full production exploring memory, childhood and nostalgia, that I think each of us are very proud of.

It would be untruthful of me to pretend that there aren’t still mini doubts and uncertainties floating around my head, worries about what people may think or take away from their experience of something that we have worked so hard on. However, regardless of how many weeks or months or years of preparation one is given, there will always be doubts. It is part of the excitement and the fun and is natural with any process.

Tomorrow night we open in Smock Alley Theatre with our first production of Night Light. It has been exhausting and time-consuming but we have made it, and it has been an incredibly gratifying and creative process. I have made some wonderful friends and have truly enjoyed the constant collaboration that has happened throughout the process. For me, it is this collaboration that is most important in theatre and what makes it all worthwhile.

Night Light runs in Smock Alley Theatre from July 7^th-9^th

Director: 

Ilo Tarrant

                                                           

Cast: 

Venetia Bowe

Richard Durning
Fionn Foley

Fionnuala Gygax

'Taking Back our Voices' - Important Theatre

Today I attended a play reading at the Abbey Theatre called ‘Taking Back our Voices’, exploring the profession of prostitution in Ireland today. I say play ‘reading’, which would usually suggest a bunch of actors sitting on stools, facing the audience, and delivering lines with their scripts in hand. Today however, I did not witness this at all, but rather a dynamic and emotionally truthful performance that I don’t think I will ever forget.

Before I go any further, I would like to explain why I am writing this response in the first place. I am deliberately calling it a ‘response’, rather then ‘review’ because this definitely is not a review. I will not be trying to use flowery language or make myself sound more intelligent then I actually am. I will not be analyzing aspects of production that I found effective. Instead, I will just be describing my own honest,emotional reaction to this afternoon, which I can safely say was the most powerful piece of theatre I have seen upon the Abbey stage. I am not writing this response because someone has told me to or because I am bored and feel like doing something productive. I am writing this because ever since I walked out of the national theatre today, I have felt a real urge and compulsion to try and articulate my reaction to this piece of theatre, and the important subject matter of prostitution in Ireland. While it left me leaving like I wanted to change the country, I cannot do that, and so I have decided to write instead.

On stage were 5 performers; four professional actors and one ex-prostitute. In order to make this piece, the actors (Úna Kavanagh, Caitríona  Ní Mhurchú, Sorcha Kenny and Niamh Shaw), along with director Oonagh Murphy, have been in conversation with prostitutes and ex-prostitutes for the last few months, gaining a deeper insight into a lifestyle that one of the actors admitted during the post show discussion, 'we think we know a lot about when we really don't have an iota of an idea' . 

The ensemble only began rehearsals for ‘Taking Back our Voices’ last Monday, which is an incredible achievement when you actually see the high standard of theatre that was produced in such s short space of time. Saying that, it is not particularly important whether the standard of theatre was high enough or not. That was not the point. While each of the performances were exceptional, the whole point of this piece was to give a voice to the women in the profession of prostitution in Ireland, who are not usually heard by society. 

For the 40 minutes of performance, we are exposed to the brutal and inhumane lives these women lead. We witness the entrapment, the sexual abuse, the loss of dignity, the loss of power, the competitiveness amongst the women and the endless sexual tasks they are expected to perform and feel obliged to provide. We heard the voices of the real life victims of this horrific existence, their stories, their pain, their suffering, and their inability to escape. But importantly, we also heard the voices of those who finally did manage to escape from this world and are now trying to make a better life for themselves.  

On stage, in what can only be described as one of the bravest acts I have ever witnessed, Justine who is an ex-prostitute talked openly about her past life, exposing the audience to the harsh realities of this existence. She is a woman who is full of character and bravado, someone you would love to grab a drink with, someone who has suffered immensely but also someone who seems unwilling to live her life as a victim.  She is incredibly honest and her strength and willingness to share her past with a room full of strangers was something truly admirable and moving.

During the post show discussion, another ex prostitute, who was sitting in the audience and who had also been involved in the process, informed the audience that ‘everything you saw on stage today was the truth. This is the truth’. When I spoke to this same woman after the show, and told her how I admired her greatly, she told me it was vital for me to get involved with the Turn Off The Red Light campaign straight away, how important it was. After hearing a first hand account of what can only be described as a disgusting, inhumane industry, I followed this woman’s advice as soon I got home.

In Ireland today, it is illegal to sell one's body, but not illegal to buy another's body. Justine described nights where she and her fellow workers would be herded out of building in their underwear, sometimes on the street in front of children, while the clients of these women would simply be told to be on their way. Both ex prostitutes emphasized the absolute need of getting these men prosecuted. If more people could witness the cruel circumstances prostitutes endure, and had the ability to see that these women are just normal women like one's mother, one's sister, one's friend, perhaps a stronger action would be taken against prostitution in this country. At the end of the day these women are human beings, and as Justine asked the audience in the post show discussion ‘How can it ever be ok to buy another human being?’.

I wanted the post show discussion to last longer, to last for hours! I wanted to express my admiration both to the bravery of the prostitutes who were willing to be involved, and to the theatre-makers, who so effectively gave these women a voice through art. What I have learnt today more then any other theatrical experience in my life is that art can truly reflect society and give voice to those who are not usually heard. It can provoke discussion. If it can provoke discussion, it can hopefully provoke action.

The Abbey Theatre can play a vital role in Irish society. It has the ability to be the space where societal questions are raised and conversation is provoked.

I hope that more similar work is produced because I have learnt today how incredibly important it is. I will never forget my experience at the Abbey Theatre today and only wish more people had the opportunity to see this performance.

http://www.ruhama.ie/   - Supporting women affected by prostitution

http://www.turnofftheredlight.ie - Campaign to end prostitution and sex trafficking in Ireland.

16/11/2012