OXBO is brought to you by TCD alumni Lisa Nally and Jennifer Aust. They’re making shows they want to make with people they want to work with. They want you to enjoy yourself. It’s a little sexy, a little weird, and you should follow their social media @oxbotheatre. TN2 had a little chat with the pair ahead of their productions FEMINEM and WATERFORD CRYSTAL at this year’s Scene and Heard Festival.
What does Scene + Heard mean to you?
L: I think Scene and Heard is a fantastic platform to try new things that you may have avoided if the play was going up as a fully presented piece. The realisation that your piece is still a work in progress is something I didn’t think would be so useful to us as artists, but having that room to play with a piece is really exciting and allowing us to be more relaxed about the process and let the plays develop at their own pace.
J: I totally agree. The space to have mini-failures is really important. I also just think Scene and Heard is a really fun creative atmosphere – my favourite memory of the festival is probably during the festival two years ago when I was stage managing Love A La Mode, which was this wild farce, and I jokingly suggested we play a Biggie Smalls song we had been playing in our get-in as the audience were leaving each night. Which actually happened. And was gas.
How do you expect your audience to react to both FEMINEM and WATERFORD CRYSTAL? Do the shows compliment each other?
L: Very differently!! I think both pieces are striving for different things but we are both enjoying the tongue-in-cheek nature and the comedic elements of both texts, which I think will compliment one another. I hope audiences coming out of both wanting to see more of our weird tangents that eventually turned into plays.
J: I suppose we really wanted to make shows about parts of culture, which weren’t the most serious intense pieces of theatre in the world, but still encourage the audience to be engaged and excited and to come away thinking about something differently. This 2004 showjumping horse and this turn of the millennium rap artist might be metaphors. They might not. It’s up to you.
As this is a work-in-progress festival, do you expect your performances to change much between shows?
L: I’m not sure if the performances will change much between both shows, but I do think that the pieces will change once we get the audience feedback from the festival, which is something we are really looking forward to! I also think having a really hands on team for both shows has really changed the presentation of the shows over the last few weeks. Having people that are really open and honest about what they think of the development and are able to say “oh this line doesn’t work” or “push this further” is something that we really appreciate in the rehearsal room and we can really feel the piece getting stronger as the show dates get closer.
J: I have a feeling I might ad lib.
As two one-woman-shows, have you faced many obstacles in the creative process which you didn’t anticipate?
L: Getting into the rhythm of the piece is something that I assumed would be easy but being the sole actor definitely involves a different kind of focus on the text, but working with people we really enjoy working with has given me personally more confidence in the process. Putting up a one-woman show is actually real easy logistically, for things like timetabling – which is an absolute blessing!
J: FEMINEM is a mad idea but it’s been so helpful to have collaborators I really trust help me pull meaning out of it. Sometimes I worry it’s too batty, but you have to get over that idea to get to the good stuff. Getting over yourself is key. We’re also producing the shows and that’s been a big learning curve, but a great one. Also, how DO actors learn all the lines?
Has Smock Alley influenced these pieces? What will the space add?
J: I just really wanted somewhere small to get up in people’s faces a lot. Not aggressively. Just with eye contact. There’s a touch of the stand-up in both shows that we’ve been exploring and I think Boys School is great for that. Also it’s church-like, which is a lot of fun as a visual reference for the cult followings in sports and music that are referenced in both shows.
L: Yeah being closer to your audience is something we are really playing with in both shows and I think that’s really impacting our scripts and will be fun to bounce off once we get the shows up.
How has attending TCD influenced your work?
J: Being involved in theatre in Trinity gave me the opportunity to stage manage a lot of plays, direct actors to throw raspberries at each other to a Tove Lo song, and to read out my adolescent diaries in a paddling pool. It’s a fruitful environment with a lot of good people. Showed us how to work hard and use our gut and feel the good thing while it’s happening.
L: Going through the TCD drama department has made us really good at going a bit mad and probably fucking up along the way but in a way that forced us to push our boundaries, try new things and have the craic with a text. I think that’s something that has really developed our personal styles. The department also really encouraged reflection and development which is pretty much the whole point of Scene and Heard as a festival so I feel like it’s a platform we will be really suited to.
What else are you looking forward to seeing at the festival (if you get a chance!)?
L: I’m really looking forward to seeing Lost in Transmission by Shabadoo. They’ve had shows on in Scene and Heard for the last 2 years and they are always hilarious. I’m also really excited to see The Terms and Conditions of Me and my Ma, as their team is made up of absolute legends.
J: I’m excited for Where Are You From? and also Player. And Fits by Eddie Mullarkey! And Dangerous Liaisons. So many exciting things. We love plays.
Waterford Crystal runs at Smock Alley Theatre 16-17 February 2019, and FEMINEM runs at Smock Alley Theatre 1-2 March 2019 as part of Scene and Heard Festival.
