ArtScape: There was a lot of talk about expanding the nature of performance this week. The Tricycle Theatre in London is working on a "verbatim theatre" production based on the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday.
All the evidence has been heard, from 1,200 witnesses, and all that remains is the closing statement, starting on November 22nd. Guardian security editor Richard Norton-Taylor finished his script in August, whittling the evidence down to a manageable size, and the number of witnesses down to 12, while seeking to remain true to the evidence.
It's no small ambition, but based on past experience the theatrical production to emerge could have a real impact. The show opens on April 2nd, 2005. Nick Kent is artistic director of the Tricycle theatre and occasional collaborator with Norton-Taylor in the dramatic engagements with political life that is verbatim theatre in Britain; Kent's previous productions in the real-life vein include Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, now showing in New York, and dramatisations or verbatims of tribunals and inquiries from Scott to Hutton, Stephen Lawrence to Srebenica.
Kent talked about the Saville Inquiry production in Dublin on Tuesday, when he spoke at a Theatre Forum public interview with Fiach MacConghaile. The idea originated in Britain, and there was some talk about why no one here has taken on a similar project (more on that in next Friday's arts page). The many Irish scandals, buried under years of lethargy-inducing tribunals, could certainly do with a dramatic or journalistic elucidation, but really need an organisation of stature to take on the project.
MacConghaile commented that the Irish theatre establishment had disengaged from leadership in society and was comfortable reflecting what's occurring rather than engaging with it.
And barely mentioned on Tuesday was the great unspoken notion that a national theatre might engage with such issues at the heart of Irish life.
The National Theatre may be engaged in dramas of its own at the moment, but the following evening, as the storm brewed outside, there was a celebration of an examination of a different kind. The publication of the essays in the RTÉ Thomas Davis lecture series, Players and Painted Stage (see On the Town, above), deals in a different way with how Irish theatre has engaged with aspects of Irish life over the past 100 years, and Christopher Fitz-Simon, consulting editor of Seamus Hosey's series, commented how all threads could be traced back to the Abbey in some way, even if it was to escape its thrall. He mentioned the "unmannerly adverse comment that is the daily endurance" of RTÉ, largely made by people who never listen to the station, and how at the National Theatre, the same types of comment are largely made by people who never go to the theatre.
Pushing the boat out in another way is About Time, a season of contemporary performance from the UK that will run at the Project at the end of November (see On the Town, above), and will feature, among others, the celebrated Forced Entertainment company. Willie White at Project, and Madeleine Boughton of the British Council, have put together a collection of British performances that share a concern about time, but may also represent strands of performance neglected in Ireland up to now. Dubliner Joe Lawlor of Desperate Optimists, who work in digital arts and video, and who are collaborating with Dublin-based African company Arambe as part of About Time, officiated at this week's launch. He and MacConghaile recalled how the first outing of Desperate Optimists in Project - 10 years ago - received mixed reactions from an audience that didn't know what to make of it. Lawlor talked about audience expectations - and how, if you are expecting pasta and get curry, you won't like it. So maybe it's About Time there was a new impetus in performance.
Drama in the deluge
The drama usually takes place on the stage during Wexford's annual opera festival, but this year it was on the streets of the town as a result of last Wednesday's high tide and flooding, writes Gerry Smyth. However, despite the severe - and in most memories unprecedented - deluge that resulted in up to two feet of water in some parts of the town, that evening's performance of Eva went ahead against all the odds. It was helpful, of course, that the Theatre Royal is located on high ground.
Also unprecedented was the appearance of festival director Jerome Hynes on stage before the performance to thank musicians, singers and the production team, as well as the audience, for making it to the theatre through such adverse conditions. Very calmly, he also gave instructions on how to proceed in the dark in the event of power failure. Some of those taking part in Eva got to the venue courtesy of the emergency services - an emphatic case of the show must go on. After the opera, some members of the audience had to be taken to alternative accommodation as they could not return to their original lodgings. There were only a few empty seats, and in some instances people with tickets for the performance were literally marooned in restaurants they were unable to leave.
The logistics of ensuring that the production went ahead was all down to Wexford's unique combination of artistic and volunteer community efforts coming to the fore. Achieving the completion of the planned new Theatre Royal might not now seem as daunting to Wexford Festival Opera in the wake of overcoming the elemental forces set against it this week, particularly with the business and commerce heavyweights who have been assembled to form the foundation that will campaign for private funding.
The members of the foundation include Liam Healy, chairman and former chief executive of Independent News and Media plc; Peter Sutherland; Loretta Brennan Glucksman; Sir David Davies, who has also served as director of Glyndebourne and as a trustee of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden; Niall Fitzgerald, joint chairman and CEO of Unilever, and Frank Keane, chairman of Frank Keane Holdings and Motor Import Ireland. The festival has also announced the appointment of Riona Fahey as director of the foundation. Fahey previously worked with the Barretstown Gang and Focus Ireland.
Following last year's low-key, but very successful and pretty magical, Hallowe'en street hoopla, Macnas are planning a second ghoulish outing tomorrow night in Galway city. The work of Macnas - who have not yet announced an artistic director - seems ideally suited to a Hallowe'en theme, and indeed one of its most memorable Galway Arts Festival parades was the night-time one a few years ago. They're calling it Samhain, and it's based on witch hunts of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Macnas "event" - not strictly a parade - is directed by Judith Higgins and Miquel Barceló.
Bisi Adigun of Arambe Productions, the Dublin-based African theatre company, describes a "griot" as the African equivalent of a seanchaí - both being the custodian of culture. The griot is a living archive, but also a musician and an essential part of rituals and celebrations. Arambe have put
together an international conference on the griot next week. The three-day event, African Griot in Ireland, is the first of its kind here, and will showcase what Adigun describes as the "total" nature of African theatre, from readings and seminars to demonstrations and workshops, and ending with live performances - "becoming total" - on the Saturday. World-famous griots, UK-based Peter Badejo and Esiaba Irobi of the University of Ohio, will be at the seminar, hosted by TCD's Brian Singleton, on Friday morning. The seminar aims to demonstrate the various elements of African theatrical production by giving audience and participants direct experience of the full production process under the guidance of true griots. The seminar takes place at Project Cube on November 4th to 6th. For booking, tel: 01-8819625 or e-mail dairne@project.ie.
Druid Theatre is looking for a "new writingmanager" who will be responsible for the development of new work through the expansion and enhancement of Druid's new writing programme. Reporting to the artistic director, he or she will have a pivotal role in commissioning, developing and assessing of new work. The company is also recruiting an administrator. Applications to: Managing director, Druid, Flood Street, Galway. E-mail md@druidtheatre.com before Monday, November 8th