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