PROJECT 50: Interview with Cian O’Brien, Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre

Featured image: “Often Onstage” by Figs in Wigs.

Amelia McConville and Amyrose Forder speak to Cian O’Brien, Artistic Director of Project Arts Centre, about Project 50, a season of work celebrating the 50th anniversary of the stalwart Temple Bar cultural space.

 


Who are you excited to be working with as part of Project 50?

In the second week of December we had John Scott, one of Ireland’s legendary choreographers. He makes experimental contemporary dance pieces. Showing this week is his new work, Precious Metal, along with Night Wandering by Merce Cunningham, who died recently. This piece was gifted to John’s company. John has worked in the Project for a very long time so when we were putting together the programme, he was exactly the type of artist we wanted to work with.

Jean Butler will be presenting her new work, This Is An Irish Dance in February next year – Jean is known obviously as the lead in Riverdance! She has since developed a reputation as an extraordinary choreographer. There is also an upcoming piece by Olwen Fouere – a collaboration with the French author Laurent Gaude, having worked together before with Rough Magic on Sodome, My Love. This new piece is about a hunger striker, co-directed by Olwen and the choreographer Emma Martin. Olwen has been working with Project since the 1970s – we like to think it’s her home! So we’re delighted to have her.

Earlier in the programme we had work by Roger Doyle who again has been working in Project since the 70s – he’s an experimental electronic composer and he’s written a new opera, Heresy, based on the life of Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno from the 16th century. We’ve also had Butterflies and Bones which is part of the Casement Project; a larger endeavour which incorporated a festival in Kerry and a film with Dearbhla Walsh which is going to be on RTÉ sometime soon. And we’ve also had work from Pan Pan: a new work called The Importance of Nothing which has gotten fantastic reviews. It’s been a busy few months!

 


What makes Project different from other theatre and art spaces in Dublin?

One of the big differences is the length of time that Project has been here. It was Dublin’s first arts centre – it’s been here since 1966. It wasn’t founded with any kind of institutional remit, so it operates under the principle that artists can self-determine. One of the things that Project does as a result is take risks in terms of the type and form of work we present. I think we’re often led by the artists we choose to work with, so one of the things that sets us apart is that we can take those risks. We have the resources to be able to put on what is essentially one new work a week for 48 weeks of the year.

Project is more than just a theatre or a gallery: it’s those things together, facilitating the interaction of performance and visual art. We’re essentially an artists collective – we have 50 members, a range of artists, mostly quite young, who essentially are the governors [of the space]. Over the last 10 years Project has become like a line producer for artists’ work: we manage some companies’ money and projects for them, we help them tour their work around the world with our international connections. We’re often compared to The Abbey and IMMA – two organisations who get funded on a totally different level, but it’s nice to be compared to them.

Being in Temple Bar is very important for us, we’re sort of the anchor organisation here. I think Temple Bar would change without us. If we were changing though, I would love 350 seats!

 

This year saw controversy over Maser’s Repeal the 8th Mural, which was subsequently removed from the famous blue wall of Project. Should theatre be entwined with the political?

Yes, absolutely. There has always been a mural on our outside wall. Recent ones included a big YES for Yes Equality. For me it was an easy decision – Maser is such a brilliant artist. The piece is incredibly political and has a very straightforward message – that’s part of the brilliance of the work, its clarity.

I recognise when it comes to an artwork that’s on the building, it’s incredibly public –  people weren’t choosing to see it, they had to see it. For Project, it was an interesting time; it was difficult in some regards and exciting in others. There was a lot of media interest and we normally don’t get that other than from cultural journalists, so it was good profile-building for the organisation. At the same time, I think it was a good learning curve for us in terms of how audiences respond to that work and what audiences think art is for. A lot of the complaints we had – which were not that many compared to the letters of support – expressed the sentiment that “art shouldn’t be political” and we had some people that said we were trivialising a very complex situation. I’m sure there are artists who agree with those complaints, but Project probably isn’t the space for them. There are other spaces if they want to present work that doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose.

Do you think anything related Repeal the 8th to it will appear on the Project stage?

Artists talk about it all the time – the Fringe [Festival] was full of it. Panti and Repeal the 8th – that’s what the Fringe [2016] was for me. Artists and organisations like Project are so dependent on state subvention to make work. Especially during the recession, I think there was a sense that there’s a need to work within the system. There are very few younger artists who are really formally challenging (in theatre; other art forms are different) the political system. They’re not making work that is engaged with society in the participatory sense. There are still companies like THEATREclub who are making work that is engaging with society, and using engagement practices with the community to make work that is nonetheless contemporary and formally challenging. I would be interested in seeing a lot more of that kind of work.

 


How has the type of work being shown changed during your time as Artistic Director?

Before I started in Project 5 or 6 years ago, there were loads of artists making this sort of autobiographical, deconstructed, postdramatic, really microphone-down-stage-left kind of thing. And now that is shifting. Artists are beginning to make a lot more straight plays, there is a feeling of either incredible violence or this very sweet, saccharine, homespun feeling – and I don’t think that’s bad, it’s just different. I’m interested to see what thing happens that will change the direction next.

There hasn’t been that much international work presented and I think those moments when international companies come in and artists see the work, it can change their practice. I think we have a responsibility there to be a place where people can see those works. Next year we’ll have a season of work from women artists from the UK, and more work from Belgium – all of this work is about the body. That’s my thing. People here need to get on board with their bodies more.

 

You are a Trinity graduate – how did your time involved in undergraduate theatre shape your career?

Oh it entirely shaped it, because I basically never went to class! I have a Geography and Sociology degree, but weirdly, the first thing I got involved with was a “debut directors” option in the Drama Department. After that I got involved in DU Players. Players became a second home for me during college. That’s really where I made most of my friends; that world became my world. I was interested in theatre all through my teens and childhood, but it was Players and getting involved in production and backstage and eventually being the Chair in my final year that really got me going on that path. Basically my job is like being Chair of Players but with way more consequences! I suppose the fact that Trinity fostered that, that I was still able to pass my degree with relative success, was a good thing. My tutor was from the drama department, and that encouragement was really important. The community that exists around a society like that, that carries through. It’s what the theatre community is like, only now you get paid for it!

I loved being in Trinity. I felt I needed qualifications then, so I did a Masters in Arts Management in UCD, but it was being in Players that was key.  

 

What can we expect from Project in 2017?

More international work! We’re going to announce a new artistic strategy in March: it will be changing the direction in the way we work. 2017 is going to be a year of change. It has taken me a little while to get hold of that feeling of: “ok I know what I’m doing now”. Five years in the job is probably a long time for that, but it’s taken me this long to test things and try things. Now I have a sense of what we need to do, and how I can make that work. Watch this space!

Our interview with choreographer John Scott: www.tn2magazine.ie/lear-interview-with-valda-setterfield-john-scott
Our review of Heresy: www.tn2magazine.ie/roger-doyles-heresy-review
Our review of The Importance of Nothing: www.tn2magazine.ie/the-importance-of-nothing-review

Images courtesy of Project Arts Centre.

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