The Viking Theatre @ the sheds

The Viking Theatre@ the sheds is a newly-opened, intimate theatre space situated above Connolly’s pub in Clontarf, Dublin. This is an exciting new venue offering a diverse programme of events and an artistic outlet for both audiences and performers. Today, I sat down with the co-founders, director Laura Dowdall and actor Andrew Murray to learn more about the theatre.



Could you tell me a little bit about the Viking and how the theatre came about?

Andrew: I suppose for a number of years now, anybody who is involved with theatre in a small scale was finding it increasingly difficult to find a venue at an affordable price. Myself and Laura had done a few productions together and we’d talked about where we would go and what we would do. Everywhere was expensive and you were taking a high risk. We had talked about doing plays in pubs or somewhere that was quite accessible to people. We were at a pub quiz one night in Connolly’s and the idea came of doing The Weir because it is set in a bar and our theatre has a bar in it. We thought we could just put out a load of chairs and do The Weir. So, we approached Peter Connolly downstairs and asked what the chance was of doing plays upstairs and he just said “Yeah, ok.”

Had either of you ever intended on opening a theatre before this?

Laura: I think it’s always kind of something on the wish list, having your own space to put on your own plays. But, it’s funny, since we’ve opened this space, we’ve been so busy running it and being a receiving house bringing in productions. The Weir is the first thing we put on ourselves. I directed it. Now, in two weeks, Andy is going to get a chance to actually act in one of the productions.

What were the initial goals or ambitions you had for this theatre?

Andrew: I guess it was to make theatre really accessible to people, to keep the price low, to put on really good quality stuff so that, you know, if you took a chance on walking in, you were going to see something good, rather than something in a school hall or whatever. I guess the long term goal was to do productions of our own and to introduce theatre to people who have never even been into a theatre. We’ve had a few of those in, which is really surprising. People have approached us and gone “I’ve never been to the theatre ever, I’ve never seen a play, this is my first play”. When somebody says that to you, it’s actually kind of moving.

Do you think this theatre has had an impact on the community down here in Clontarf?

Laura: Oh yes, very much so. It’s like pushing an open door. It’s like it was something waiting to happen. There’s 17,000 people living in the greater Clontarf area, so that’s an awful lot of people immediately who can nearly walk to the theatre and they don’t have to go to town. They don’t have the expense of taxis or bus fares in or out. It’s €10, it’s down the road and they can have a drink. There has been great support from all of the locals.

What are the main attractions of a theatre like this?

Andrew: A lot of our punters that have been in have said that going to town is such a big thing these days. Theatre tickets are expensive, you have to get taxis and by the time you’re home, you’ve spent €150. A lot of people are saying this is right down the road from them, they can stroll down, easy to get here. There’s no formality attached to it. I suppose theatre has got a little bit of elitism. We try to encourage people and say “Not at all, it’s not like that. Just turn up and have a drink and enjoy yourself.” 

What type of productions have you produced here before?

Laura: We try to provide a variety so that it will attract and please a lot of people. 

Andrew: Anything from Joyce to McPherson. Ironically actually, a lot of the stuff we did originally, a lot of it was Irish written, just by chance. It wasn’t a deliberate policy of ours. It turned out that an awful lot of the good stuff out there is Irish written and Irish produced and has toured extensively.

Where would you like to see the Viking in 3 years time?

Laura: Still here!

Andrew: Still here but that we own the three houses next door and that we’ve broken into them and that we have a huge place… No, we’re happy with the way it is at the moment.

Laura: We really need more people to hear about us, we need to get the word out there.

Andrew: I guess we’d love to get a reputation like places like The King’s Head and The Bush Theatre in London, where people like Ian McKellan and these big names will actually come and they’ll do it in front of 50 or 60 people. They look on venues like that with admiration and respect because it’s such a difficult business to survive in and if you do and you are appealing to the right people, then yeah, you can go forever. I’d love to see some big names here.

Can you describe the Viking in 3 words?

Andrew: Intimate

Laura: Friendly

Andrew: Yeah, and high quality.

For more information about The Viking @ the sheds and their upcoming productions, visit: http://www.vikingtheatredublin.com/

Grenades, Bewley's Café Theatre- Review

In theatre today, the responsibility of a production’s success lies largely on the shoulders of the director.  Audiences often desire to experience something new or shocking; thus it is sometimes refreshing to attend a production such as Grenades, that although incredibly simple, still offers a highly effective theatrical experience.

Grenades was originally produced in 2010 as a radio play and since then has soared into theatrical success, both nationally and internationally. With a minimal set, simple lights and one actor on stage, Tara McKevitt’s production is stripped back, relying largely on language to communicate the story of troubled teenager Nuala Kelly (Emma O‘Grady). 

Set in Northern Ireland, the play explores the devastating effects that political turmoil can inflict on families. Exploring the victimization of children during political agitation, McKevitt’s production focuses solely on the character of Nuala Kelly, an outspoken, opinionated nine year old. Emma O’Grady captures the innocence of the boisterous child, who offers us glimpses into the local community through her animated impressions of characters such as Elaine Jam-Jar Glasses. However, when Nuala’s loss of family is revealed, the play poignantly probes the long term effects of such psychological damage.

The set is simple, yet purposeful. Consisting of  plain walls and a simple green plastic chair, one remains unsure as to whether Nuala is inside a prison cell, or inside the waiting room of the prison. This creates a level of uncertainty regarding the plot throughout. The frozen clock on the wall is perhaps symbolic of Nuala’s inability to emotionally progress from the day her life was destroyed. One gets the impression that the story she shares with us is one that she delivers on a regular basis.

Along with Caroline Lynch’s crisp direction, McKevitt’s writing is authentic and sensitively captures the voice of a child. However, it is Emma O’Grady‘s performance that brings the production to life. While the thought of one actor on stage for an hour can seem monotonous, O’Grady’s performance is engaging with her ability to entertain and move her audience.

 

As I had never attended Bewley’s Café Theatre before, I was slightly unconvinced that such a minimalist theatre could prove to be as effective as a production in a larger, more equipped space. However, after observing people sit around tables, sipping tea and coffee like one would in their own home, while still listening intently to the performance on stage, I believe I am reformed . While it would not be the case for every production, the relationship between the actor and the audience was intensified hugely due to the level of intimacy created by the space. This added significantly to the overall production and allowed us space to listen to each word delivered by O’Grady. 

The Magic of the Melodican...

There are many words one could use to describe Macnas, some of which include whacky, wild, explosive, spectacularly creative and simply brilliant. They dream the extreme!

This week, myself and a troupe of performers became wild and wonderful inventors, joining the Macnas family for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

 

A performance based on mischief and madness, greatness and genius, insanity, ecstasy, joy and dreams, our Macnas experience was bound to be full of play, magic and experimentation.

Under the direction of Bryan Burroughs, the group attended a series of workshops in the Lir,where we played, moved, invented and created. 

Our source of inspiration came from this contraption, known as the Melodican.

 

Together as an ensemble, we built this magical device, our greatest creation yet! Our invention makes the sun shine, shoots thousands of butterflies all over Dublin, farts freckles, makes music, turns your hair red and flies. Obviously.

It was a privilege to work and perform with Bryan Burroughs, who stepped into the role of chief inventor, guiding us on our inventor ways. There was a real sense of ensemble throughout the entire rehearsal process, with a great emphasis on the body and imagination. We created a performance with the help of secret codes that are so secret I couldn't possibly reveal what they mean, such as:

Melodican                                                          Invention

                                    Inspiration 

Combustion                                                       Respiration

Noeline Kavanagh, director of Macnas, attended two of our rehearsals, polishing our performance and offering us advice about the wondrous spontaneity and excitement of Street Theatre. 

I'm going to take this moment to say that she is quite possible the coolest person ever.

Her energy and passion was inspiring and mind-boggling. Watching her at work is like watching a steam train racing over the moon at full pace, again and again. With such devotion to what she does, Noeline's presence made a big impact on the group. Above anything else, there seemed to be an acknowledgement that we were involved with something very special.

Performing in the parade was one of the more surreal moments of my life. It was the sort of experience that no matter how much time I spent slaving over the keyboard, I would never capture the essence of magic that I experienced yesterday.

Performing to a quarter of a million people in the open air of Dublin, in a costume that could only be described as exquisite, with a group of extremely talented performers, was something quite unforgettable. 

While I had been initially worried about the distance we would be performing, we had reached the finishing line before we knew it. 

The entire performance was like one big blur of laughter, excitement, vigour,creativeness, smoke, colour, energy, spontaneity, inspiration, interaction, whackyness, inventions, frenzy, hysteria, passion and a wee bit of vanity for good measure.

Macnas create magic, and I am extremely grateful to have been a part of that magic.

Fin x

Irish Theatre Summit 2012

Well , I wasn't really planning on blogging again so soon after my escapades over the last 2 weeks.

However, this week I took part in a series of Acting Masterclasses as part of the Irish Theatre Summit 2012 and a friend convinced me to post about them. Also, judging by my timetable which is currently scarily empty for the next few months, this may be the most interesting thing I do for quite awhile...

The Irish Theatre Summit was set up by Players to give people the chance to take Masterclasses in either Acting, Directing, Writing or Tech. With some of the top industry practitioners invited to facilitate workshops, the whole experience was invaluable. It was also a fantastic opportunity to work with people from the older years who I hadn't had the chance to work with before.

Annie Ryan

Friday: Annie Ryan & Alison Bomber

Friday started with a workshop with Annie Ryan, Artistic Director of Corn Exchange. We started by doing an hour and 15 minutes of Yoga. While this may sound soothing and peaceful, it was relatively painful and made me realise what a failure I am at life...
The main thing I got from Annie Ryan's workshop was to push boundaries and not to always settle for my first instinct. According to Annie, our third instinct on stage is always the most interesting and is where the magic happens. Unfortunately, I had to leave the workshop an hour early. However, while I was there we did some exercises on making discoveries in the moment which activated the imagination. As brief as it was, doing a workshop with Annie Ryan was fantastic. As well as her knowledge and passion, it is inspiring to see a woman being so influential in Irish Theatre.

Alison Bomber

After lunch we had a workshop with Alison Bomber, senior voice and text coach from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Royal Shakespeare Company!! If the Theatre Summit had been this workshop alone, I would have been there. I had never met someone before who was so overwhelmed and energized by language and sounds. It was really refreshing to witness someone who has a sincere passion for words. The main  focus of the workshop was to show  how one doesn't need to act when acting Shakespeare. The meaning is found within the sounds of the text. We focused a lot on punctuation in text, walking around the room and stopping with a full stop and changing direction with any other type of punctuation. The whole workshop was pretty mind-boggling and also extremely beneficial.
I did so well that Alison even invited me back over to the RSC with her to play Ophelia. I told her my schedule was pretty packed at the moment, but maybe another time...



Saturday: A day at the Lir

We began at 9:30 with a movement workshop with Sue Mythen, a teacher from the Lir Academy. Throughout the workshop we did a lot of work on the centre, exploring how it can affects our bodies, voice and how we interact with other. We explored moving in the space with our centre open, closed, up, down, forward or backwards. It was interesting to observe how it affected how we communicated with eachother.  We also worked creating a certain atmosphere in a room and then seeing how that atmosphere affects the people in the room. We finished with a group improv where each of us created a character who had just walked on to the Titanic...

After lunch we did a vocal workshop with Cathal Quinn. To begin with we did a lot of streching, incorporating the voice: Fiddly fingers, wriggly wrists, eager elbows, angular ankles etc. Throughout the workshops we did a lot of work on articulation, projection and breathing. We also worked on text from Burial at Thebes, by Séamus Heaney.

Acting class with Bryan Burroughs was a breath of fresh air. He started the class by telling us that he was going to push us in this workshop, instead of opting for the easy option which would be to play games for the entire session. I have to admit I was nervous when I heard this, but also relieved that we were really going to be challenged.

According to Bryan, all theatre is is PUSH and PULL. While I was initially unconvinced by this statement, as the workshop progressed, I knew exactly what he meant.
For a large portion of the workshop we simply played with gravity. It sounds simple, it is simple, but it is also incredibly intense. We did the exercise different ways:

1. Beginning lying down, being pulled towards the floor by gravity. Objective: Try to stand up.
2. Beginning standing up, being pulled towards the ceiling. Objective: Try to sit down.
3. Begin against the wall, being pulled towards the wall. Objective: Try to get away from the wall.
4. All of these together.

You can cheat, but you don't. Instead, you cause yourself stress and strain trying to drag yourself from the floor. Scenarios start to build in your head, and gradually you make yourself believe that you physically are being dragged down or up or backwards. All around the room there are pained sounds and heaving breaths. I found it extremely interesting to observe how such a simple concept can cause such a massive effect in the room. We transformed these individual processes into a group ensemble pieces, performing in groups of three and then receiving direction from Bryan.

Spending a day at the Lir was fantastic, offering all of us an opportunity to experience what it would be like to go to Drama School.



Sunday: A day with Louis Lovett

Today, Times Square watched us as we passed a ball around the room. They watched in amazement as we created spontaneous moments. They couldn't get over our talent. They applauded momentously. We were the best ball passers in the world!


I could continue discussing all of the games and exercises that Louis taught us today because they were wonderful and fun and energetic. Instead though, I'm going to talk about the fantastic advice he offered us throughout the course of the workshop, because for me, the advice he gave was invaluable.

1. It is crucial to be a team player. Be willing to be part of a team.
2. Love your audience.
3. Be READY. Always.
4. Raise the stakes for yourself. If you are practising in your bathroom, imagine that Times Square are watching you.
5. Be present. Imagine a giant light shining out from your chest, your face, your shoulder, your ass. Fill the space with your presence.
6. Check in with others.
7. Play seriously.



I immensely enjoyed the series of Masterclasses over the last few days. It was a fantastic opportunity that I am so glad I availed of. Huge recognition deserved to Players committee who organised the weekend.
I hope I will be privileged enough to work with some of the practitioners again sometime in the future.

Fin x

Day 13: Showtime and Goodbye time

So I can now officially say I have performed in Amsterdam. Even better, in an actual theatre this time!

After such an emotionally explosive week, I was very anxious about the result of the final performance. While my faith had grown considerably from the process of the Ommen performance, I was still unconvinced that what we had created was good enough to show a public audience in Amsterdam. 

When I stepped into the theatre, I began to feel nervous and excitement. This was a massive relief because during the Ommen performance, I felt nothing.

This experience was certainly not like one I had previously encountered. I learnt my lines on the bus on the way to the theatre, chose my costume an hour before the show and changed the delivery of my lines dozens of times that day before making a decision. 

No one was quite sure what they were doing or what was going to happen...

I continuously had to remind myself what we were dealing with:

30 people, all from different countries and different cultures, interested in different art forms and given 3 days to create a full performance. 

The more I thought about it, the more positive I became. Scattered around the dressing room was the most diverse group of people I had ever met, all focused, getting into costume, doing eachother's make-up ,rehearsing lines and practising dance moves. It was amazing.

The production itself was bizarre, like nothing I had seen or been involved in before. The more I saw of it, the more I enjoyed it. I won't lie and say it was the greatest piece of theatre ever created, but I think it was a good showcase and representation of us as a group and all the hard work people had done for the last 2 weeks. For that reason it was really special.

Then it was goodbye time. Most people cried because they couldn't bear to see me go. I just have that effect on people sometimes. It's kinda awkward...

As the saying goes: When in Rome. 

Well I say: When in Amsterdam. 

It would have been a real shame to have performed in Amsterdam but not to have seen any of the city or experienced the night-life. After a tiring two weeks, it was important to blow off some steam. And blow off steam we did...

Fin x

Day 12: RELIEF

BREAKTHROUGH!

Today started like the last 3 days have been. No one had any head space, everyone felt down and the atmosphere was negative and disheartened. It was like there was a weight on everyone that wouldn't shift. Despite some people's efforts, it didn't seem like this was going to shift...

Thankfully, the leaders finally listened to the advice given and locked a group of directors into a room to come up with a new structure for the performance, using and improving what we had already and also creating new stuff to give the production a clearer objective.

The directors changed the theme of the play to Interpretations. The introducing of the new theme create a shift of atmosphere in the room and soon  positivity began bubbling. Throughout the day there was a breath of fresh air about the place and for the first time in days, people were excited to create and perform.

We have just finished a run through of the new and improved piece. Early tomorrow morning we set off for Amsterdam!! Finally excited.

It's just hit me that tonight may be my last night in Olde Vechte. That terrifies me. I don't want to leave yet.

Fin x

Day 10 & Day 11: To lie or not to lie...

This post isn't going to be an easy one. My issue right now is whether to give an idealistic documentation of the last 2 days or to admit that they were complete hell.

1.My idealistic version goes something like this:

The last two days were fun, creative, inspiring and productive. Although tensions mounted at times, the atmosphere of comradery here in the Olde Vechte never faltered. Over the last 48 hours, the only faces here were happy faces.

 

Yesterday, it was an exciting experience to visit the space in which we would be performing:








(Although this unfortunately wasn't the space.)



Absolutely there was occasional moments of stress over the last few days but the most important thing was that people focused on communication and teamwork.With a few minor glitches along the way the group succeeded in creating a piece of art that we were all proud of. Roll on Amsterdam!!

2.My honest version goes something like this:

The last two days were stressful, frustrating, soul-destroying and exhausting. It's tough to create something with such a large, diverse group of people, in less then 2 days. With contrasting opinions, different visions and constant time restrictions, creating a full production including all the art forms was never going to be an easy task. The last two days proved that perhaps it is impossible.

It was a...surprising experience to visit the space in which we would be performing:

 (I really do wish I was joking...)

I believe that the last 48 hours may have slightly impacted the mental state of myself and the other members of the group:

It's disappointing to acknowledge the fact that something you created has a much lower standard then you had anticipated. I was unsure whether to admit the fact that our performance today was a complete mess but I've decided on the basis of honesty, and also fearing that a Youtube video may be leaked, I am going to be honest and admit that I was very disappointed. With a group of such talented people, who have succeeded in creating such fantastic works over the last 2 weeks, it was a shame that our final performance did not do us justice in any way.

I'm also admitting this because I am going to continue being optimistic and have faith in the group for the last 3 days. Tomorrow,we have a full day to improve or change the piece,before the performance in Amsterdam on Wednesday. I'm physically and emotionally tired, but I am willing to work hard in order to create something that I can be prouder of and that will give me some sort of feeling when I'm on stage. The quote "Fail better" comes to mind.

On a positive note, I would like to add that although the last 48 hours haven't been so fantastic, I got to meet Madonna's soul-mate which lifted my mood considerably. It would take hours to list the series of coincidences that connect these two human beings but I think that even the fact that both Meadhbh and Madonna like to wear hats says a lot:

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, but one can only hope...

Fin x