A couple of decades ago, an intriguing occurrence unravelled in the Gate Theatre, nestled within Dublin. Generally known for hosting revised classics, literary adaptations and debut performances by Irish dramatists, the theatre proffered an occasion to witness a captivating new play by a dynamic talent from New York.
Neil LaBute, recognized for his bleakly humorous, intense dramas, was staging his newest play, The Shape of Things, for an Irish audience a year following its world premiere. The play featured a young Cillian Murphy playing an unconfident college learner exploited by an artist who designates him as her masterpiece’s subject. A vivid memory for many is the fresh image of the Gate’s stage akin to a vibrant, chic art gallery brimming with youthful Americans.
Róisín McBrinn, the theatre’s present artistic director, recalls the 2002 performance, where the setting was a mammoth, white box, and was motivated by its provocation. Into her second year of leadership, McBrinn appears to guide the theatre down a similar course. As history would have it, the theatre presented two plays by LaBute in consecutive years. Now, McBrinn, after showcasing Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s splendid musical Fun Home at the Gate, is gearing towards the Irish premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation, the phenomenal play by Pulitzer laureate playwright Annie Baker.
McBrinn’s body of work predominantly focuses on the other side of the Irish Sea, towards Britain, where she resided for almost two decades. The striking production, Before the Rain, a grim portrayal of neglect in blue-collar Cardiff, shown by the Sherman Theatre in Wales, stands out. Her contribution to acclaimed works that incorporate experiences from the English penal system, such as Typical Girls, Favour, and Dixon and Daughter, produced by London’s avant-garde company Clean Break (where McBrinn served for eight years) is noteworthy.
Prior to her focus on the United Kingdom, the United States appeared to capture her interest. While she was in California on a college exchange programme studying Latin-American theatre, she discovered José Rivera. His plays, characterised by their dreamy and rotating narratives, captivated her. McBrinn directed two of his well-known pieces early in her career: ‘Giants Have Us in Their Books’― a fusion of Caribbean fairy tales and modern day New York, and ‘References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot’ ― an absurd fantasy rooted in a troubled marital relationship, featuring lustful animals of the desert. The magical realism at the core of his work intrigued her.
Following her relocation to London, McBrinn embarked on the production of ‘Gompers’, an American drama by Adam Rapp depicting life in a dilapidated, post-industrial town. Despite efforts to burgeon the audience base for the new play, the Gate theatre has revived ‘The Price’, a 1968 Arthur Miller timeless masterpiece. However, she abstains from comparing the two ventures – the contemporary versus the established. She expresses her keen interest in the modern perspectives on works like ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Hairy Ape’. She questions their relevance, their impact, and the reasons for their recreation today.
For instance, the revival of ‘The Price’ last year was of tremendous importance to McBrinn. It was crucial for the audience to have an opportunity to experience it prior to the opening of ‘Fun Home’. She believes in the inclusivity of diverse voices in her work and strives to grant space and authority to these voices in her productions. Whether they are female leads or lesbian leads or experimental musical arrangements, she sees them as integral to her work. But she also gives weight to traditional influences like the Greeks or Miller, as she sees it as necessary in progressing the narrative forward.
A once released circular recalled the aspiring goal of Gate’s founders, Edwards and MacLiammóir, in their pursuit to present innovative and forward-thinking plays. McBrinn, however, underscores the need to not misconstrue audiences as outdated or in desperate need of innovation. “That’s not the case. The real task here is to reassess our global stand and find its significance,” she voices.
The Gate’s staging of the Irish premiere of Fun Home could depict as a surprise to many. This theatrical adaptation of a graphic memoir originally written by Alison Bechdel, recounts the life of the lesbian cartoonist, focusing on her childhood memories and her struggles to remember her closeted father from a small American town in the 1970s.
With a meticulously chosen cast, McBrinn brought an apt form of ire to this delightful-sounding musical, as though expressing defiance against a broader society’s shame. “The heart of that performance exhibited such sincerity in theatre – purposefully aiming to amplify empathy whilst simultaneously providing entertainment. I felt immense pride over it,” she shares.
One particular scene, when Bechdel reminiscences a car journey with her father on the last night she saw him alive, stirred emotions amongst the audience. The poignant moment, showing them sitting together, her father deeply immersed in the shame of his forbidden love, blind to the shared understanding their queerness could provide, moved the spectators to tears.
In Ireland, although Bechdel’s name may be recognised by some due to her influential graphic novels (resulting in the creation of the ‘Bechdel test’), Baker is less known. McBrinn mentions that in her encounters with artists, Baker’s name has been frequently referenced, demonstrating that the theatre industry has been actively promoting her.
After the 2009 premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation, the perception of Baker’s distinctive approach towards playwriting could perhaps have been drowned by attention-grabbing pieces from contemporaries like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Young Jean Lee. However, as noted by Helen Shaw, currently the theatre critic for the New Yorker, Baker has brought realism back into style.
Set in New England, a quintet of individuals convenes every week at a local community centre to partake in a unique “creative drama” class. The eye-catching group includes an aspirational and spontaneous female instructor, portrayed by Niamh Cusack, whose ever-accommodating husband also forms part of the class. As for the other characters, there’s a retreating actor from New York, played by Imogen Doel, a divorcé grappling with his emotional turmoil, represented by Marty Rea, and a teenage girl looking for solace from a troubled home, a character brought to life by Hazel Doupe. She is the one to query at some stage if there will be any conventional acting involved.
Those who have experienced a speech and drama class will understand the nuances of activities like “explosion tag” or the “circle mirror transformation” game. Annie Baker’s play astoundingly manages to transform the characters’ simple renditions of their own lives into something deeply moving and incredibly relatable on a grand scale, as they either expose fractures in their relationships or forge new bonds. All of this could have life-altering implications.
McBrinn, the director, is captivated by the play as it embodies the unique potential of drama to unmask our identities, an attribute she believes only theatre possesses. To amplify Baker’s meticulous attention to detail, McBrinn has decided to execute her version in a novel, traverse formation, intending to seat the audience closer to the unfolding action.
McBrinn respects the courage that Baker’s characters employ by willingly exposing themselves to risks and potential vulnerabilities. This is especially noteworthy considering the varied age and backgrounds of the characters. Equally, the act of a director attracting an audience to an unfamiliar play appears significant, almost as if suggesting that taking a risk could potentially bring about monumental transformations in life.
The play, Circle Mirror Transformation, is scheduled to run at the Gate Theatre in Dublin from Wednesday, May 29th to Sunday, June 30th, with previews commencing from Friday, May 24th.