What are TCD Drama graduates up to? Some people went straight to further studies, traveling, theatre supervision and management, creating their own companies and theatre-making… I recently spoke to Grace Morgan, a 2018 graduate who is part of a new theatre collective founded by William Dunleavy, Morgan and Laoise Murray called tasteinyourmouth. Their new show will be in The New Theatre from the 21st—24th. Check it out and support your artist friends in 2020!
L: What is it about?
GM: B(l)oom is about two women – one is attending her sister’s wedding at Powerscourt Hotel and the other is working at that wedding – and their involvement in an appalling natural disaster/supernatural attack on Dublin city. The exact nature of their involvement is unclear, whether they are accidental catalysts in this disaster or knowing agents of the destruction is never made explicit. They journey through the greater Dublin area from Powerscourt down the M11 through Donnybrook and into the city centre, ending on O’Connell bridge. In a way, I suppose, it’s like a really twisted girls’ road trip.
L: What’s the aim/contemporary relevance?
GM: We were inspired to create this piece by a number of things. Firstly, the wanton destruction of buildings and landmarks in the play can certainly be seen as a response to a city which is currently filled with new construction and exclusive developments. Being an artist (that is, being a professional child), you feel an overwhelming impulse, once something shiny and new has been built, to tear it all down and start over, and I think that’s the job of an artist: to constantly be interrogating and reimagining the state of things, even when they appear to be going well.
We felt that this piece allowed us to enact the kind of frustration we saw amongst our peers, particularly among young artists who feel that Dublin is becoming a city which no longer serves their interests. The destruction undertaken by these two women feels like an act of reclamation, a way of regaining ownership over a city which seems to be in thrall to corporate entities. In addition, the fact that the two characters in this piece are women allows the audience to see their actions as ones of feminist defiance in the face of patriarchal structures (both physical and ideological).
Another major inspiration for this play was the proliferation of pieces we have seen over the last few years which have referenced notable Dublin landmarks in their dialogue. The effect of these references is to provide a background which is comforting and gratifying – there is a feeling of pleasure that comes from recognising a place that is referenced in a work of ‘art’ – for the audience. We wanted to take that moment of recognition and mangle it by presenting well-known Dublin locations in a state of appalling destruction.
Finally, Ireland is, thankfully, largely free of severe natural disasters or terrorist attacks and it often feels false as creators to talk about events in other countries of which you have no experience, so we thought the best way to respond to these awful things happening around the world was to bring them home.
L: Goals/inspirations of the company?
GM: We are a collective of young theatre artists founded by William Dunleavy, Grace Morgan and Laoise Murray. The three founders have a writer/director/actor dynamic, although we all wear different hats at different times. We want to create new, experimental work in a collaborative context. Our aim is to deliver visceral live experiences that leave a taste in your mouth (that’s where we got the name). You may not necessarily like everything we do but we hope that a line, an image, a moment will stay with you long after the lights go dark. That’s very important to us.
We are inspired by a variety of artists and art forms and we are eager to create multi-disciplinary work that brings together theatre, dance, music and performance art. We each have our own particular influences, but we are all heavily influenced by contemporary postmodern practices (mostly originating in Central Europe) and the Irish avant-garde scene.
L: The collaborative process?
WD: This piece has had a long road to completion. It was originally presented in 2018 (a whole other decade) in a much shorter version (it was only about half an hour long originally). We then rewrote and redeveloped it in preparation for this production. With this piece, I usually wrote something and then brought it to Grace and Laoise and they’d suggest changes and cuts and basically tear it to pieces. Grace and Laoise starred in the original showing back in 2018, but Grace is directing this time. Having performed in the piece, I think Grace has a unique insight into how the show works, which has been useful for her replacement: Heather O’Sullivan. Heather is an old friend of ours and we’ve all been dying to work with her so we were delighted when she agreed to be part of this show. They make an amazing duo.
