Irish theatre at the Fringe: three writers explain its appeal

Benjamin Reilly

(Writer/director of Mortal Sin, Gilded Balloon, 12.20pm, until 31 August)

I think that Irish people are inherently good storytellers. We’re experts at humour and misery. While that misery may be better dealt with by trained professionals, that would rob us of some damn fine plays!

From pubs to weddings to funerals, we love a chat and gossip. From prose to conversational dialogue, I think the quality of our theatre-making reflects that. In fact, Mortal Sin is based on a story my mum told my aunt who was visiting from the States. In the wee hours of the night and after a bottle (or two) of red wine, she prefaced the tale she was about to tell with “Now THIS should be a play”. So with a bit of poetic license, that’s exactly what I did; I made it into a play.

What I hope I achieved is capturing that dark, almost-coping-mechanism-like humour that makes Irish writing so interesting. I think that fake Yeats quote sums it up pretty nicely. “Being Irish, he has an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”

Oisín Kearney

(Writer/director of Good With Faces, Summerhall, 4.20pm, until 31 August)

What strikes me about this year’s line-up from Ireland is that while being rooted in the Irish experience, they do not wear an Irish costume or fit a single mould. Rather, they embrace a wide range of styles and artforms – from theatre to comedy to dance to multimedia. However, they do share a certain DNA: they are political.

Whether grappling with family, history, and cultural inheritance, satirising the idea of representation, or exploring the intersection of sport, community and constitutional politics, these new Irish shows aren’t just frivolous entertainment, they have important questions for the contemporary world about who we are and where we are going. Irish storytellers have yet more tales to tell that will surely resonate far beyond our island.

In 2018, I came to the Fringe with a little-known show called My Left Nut. It was a humorous coming-of-age story about a young man discovering a swelling on his testicle while growing up without a father, inspired by the life of the play’s co-writer Michael Patrick. We adapted the show into a BBC Three television series and co-wrote four more plays together.

Tragically, Michael passed away this April from motor neurone disease, the same illness that took his father. This August, I return to Summerhall with my first solo writing and directing project. The play’s a provocative psychological thriller about a struggle for power between a worried mother and a concerned social worker.

The thing I am most excited for this Fringe is the chance to see some of the best new work from all over the world. In previous years, I’ve been struck by avante-garde Belgian puppetry work, immersive multi-sensory theatre from English companies, and Latinx comedy shows and musicals. However, I will be hitting up every venue to find new Irish writing.

Joy Nesbitt

(Director of The King of All Birds, Summerhall, 1.40pm, until 31 August, and writer of Julius Caesar Variety Show, Summerhall, 4.45pm, until 31 August)

As an African American, I came to Ireland interested in post-colonial theatre from a new perspective. I wanted to explore what it looked like to cultivate a national theatrical identity in the wake of a long colonial history perpetrated by a neighboring empire. Irish theatre is unique because it deals with that history and it uses it to make commentary that is multifaceted, darkly funny, and also self aware.

In both of the pieces I’m bringing to the Fringe, I’m trying to emulate these themes. The King of All Birds is a really special piece of experimental Irish theatre by Martha Knight. It simultaneously deals with the unique charm of Irish mythology and history while also dealing with the epigenetic connection between a successful modern Ireland and a series of Irish forefathers and mothers who are constantly striving for ownership of their land and sky. I learned so much from directing this piece because of Martha’s deeply felt interrogation of Irish identity that exists despite colonial oppression.

In my play, Julius Ceasar Variety Show, I am writing about modern Irish identity at a tipping point. Ireland, like many countries in the west, is facing a far right wave that threatens the very beliefs that the country was built on. The play speaks to our modern culture of condemning these beliefs in theory while being too afraid of addressing the microaggressions that we commit in our workspaces that contribute to these beliefs. In a way, this play is a fable, warning us of what happens when our morality doesn’t match our actions.

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