Winners, Lovers, Grievance and youth

Blackthorn Theatre Group are embarking on their third professional production. Which doesn’t sound impressive until you realise that most of the group are under eighteen. I spoke with Luke Field, one of the founder members about their forthcoming productions of Brian Friel’s “Lovers:Winners” and “Grievance” by Steven Lynch.

Sorry for asking this, but how old are you?

I’m 18, for another little while anyway. That puts me pretty much just about on the “elder lemon” side of the company’s average age.

Given your ages, how do you get people to let you have a venue to put on a show or even rehearse?

Well, we’ve been running this company for well over a year now and it still amazes me how accommodating people can be. We have a wonderful performance venue in the Cork Arts Theatre, whose staff members have been very supportive of Blackthorn since the company was founded and have a tradition of helping smaller companies with their ambitions. Basically, if your company has insurance and you can find a suitable free slot, you can book the CAT Club, and that’s how it should be really. Rehearsal venues can be a little trickier. We occasionally rent out parish halls, scout halls and the like for the purposes of rehearsing in, but even the most cost-effective venues will put a significant dent in your finances if you’re paying for them three times a week or whatever. Ever since our maiden production “Prisoners” last August we’ve had a tradition of getting free rehearsal venues, which often means annexing the house of a cast or crew member for an evening or ten. Thank heaven for the extended Blackthorn family.

How do you build sets etc. without messing up your school schedule?

Well, thankfully that was less of an issue this time around given that the production is taking place during summer holidays. It has been a bit of an issue in the past alright, but I’d be lying if I said I had a straight answer as to how each person dealt with balancing their responsibilities. I suppose it was a case of acknowledging that school work was important, and so was theatre work, and there had to be a way to get both done. If something is important to you, then you’ll always find a way to get it done.

Are your relatively young ages an advantage or a disadvantage?

They have the capacity to be both, really. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get taken seriously; I mean, people still do a double-take when I tell them I founded a theatre company at 17, though not always in a bad way. But certainly some people do seem to have the mentality that because we are so young, then nothing we do is important enough to warrant being respected or taken seriously, fortunately those people are in the minority. For the most part the young age is an advantage I think, it means the company is never short on energy and drive and it also means that we really do surprise people when they see how good our productions really are.

Tell me about the current productions?

Well, there are two plays to be described. The first play is “Winners”, the opening half of “Lovers”, Brian Friel’s exploration of two very different relationships in very different circumstances. The couple in Winners is made up of Joe and Mag, teenagers in 1960s Tyrone, who are facing into their GCE examinations. The couple are forced to leave their Catholic Church-run schools in disgrace when Mag discovers she is pregnant, a massive taboo in the conservative environment of the time. The play takes place over the course of a morning spent studying on a hilltop, though the couple spend more time studying their relationship and circumstances than their schoolbooks. It deals with very serious themes that really resonate with a young audience in particular, but it’s also very funny and full of energy. I have to say, this year is a pretty fateful year to perform in “Winners”. It’s the year of Friel’s 80th birthday, and also the year in which we lost Anna Manahan, who had two roles in the original production of “Lovers”. On a more personal note, Susan O’ Sullivan (Mag) and I sat our Leaving Cert exams just before rehearsals for “Winners” began in August, so we had at least an idea of what the young couple were going through. Though thankfully not all of it…

The second half of the production is an entirely separate one-act play. “Grievance”, a new play written by Blackthorn member Steven Lynch, examines the lasting effects of abusive relationships. James, a recovering alcoholic, has just lost his wife of many years, and it is on the day of her funeral that a long-running conflict between the man and his son Steven comes to a head. While James has changed his ways and become a different man to the husband and father who abused both alcohol and his family, Steven is unwilling to let the past go as the death of his mother reopens old wounds.

How do you run two plays on a single evening, or rather two full plays?

The structure of the evening is that we’re running Winners first (with a break of no more than two minutes between the episodes) and then a standard interval before showing Grievance.

Who in the cast is most like their characters in the current run?

Honestly, I think that “Lovers: Winners” might be the first production I’ve been a part of where no role was subject to even slight typecasting, everyone involved is actually pretty different to their character. Our Mag, Susan O’ Sullivan, is far more sensible and grounded than her often flaky character, our Joe (Cormac Heffernan) is a warm and outgoing young man rather than the somewhat cold bookworm that his character typifies, and our four narrators have almost never been known to spontaneously recite detailed case reports about the deaths of young lovers. Almost never.

What is the hardest thing for you in the plays?

Anyone who has spent any amount of time working in theatre in any capacity is familiar with the phrase “hurry up and wait”. It’s the nature of such projects, with many people doing different things at once, that you’ll have to spend some time sitting around waiting for Godot (or at least your stage manager). For me, the waiting time is the hardest part of working on a play. What’s far more manageable is the stress of making every single rehearsal, of nailing every single line, of constantly analysing and improving and refining every single nuance; these things are ok to stress over because you’re actively working and can make a difference. No such luxury when you’re just waiting around!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to do this for themselves?

Well that really does depend on what you mean by “do this”! If by that you mean getting involved in theatre, then the only advice I can give is to keep your eyes open for amateur productions to get involved in. Failing that, there should be some acting schools / stage schools in your locality, which should at least give you a taste of theatre life and also give you some training in the essentials of the art. Most people know pretty quickly whether or not theatre is for them, the bug tends to bite quickly.

However, if by “do this” you mean form a theatre company then my advice is to be cautious. Think long and hard, be very, very sure you want to get into this side of theatre. When I formed Blackthorn it was pretty much because I needed to, as there was very little acting work available to my age group outside of pantomime work. Plus, I also wanted to pursue directing and writing for the stage, and there certainly wasn’t any outlet for that in Cork for someone as young as myself! The company was basically formed as a way for young artists like myself to get the experience and opportunities that would be completely beyond us otherwise. Now I don’t regret it for an instant, forming Blackthorn was one of the best decisions I ever made. But it certainly wasn’t easy, I was pushed to the very point of breaking during the early days and even now it creates a lot of work. So perhaps it’s worth considering what’s around you before you jump in, just in case there’s an easier way! Though if you’ve got your heart set on forming your own company and doing it your own way (best of luck with it) then my advice is simple: go for it hell for leather, give it everything you’ve got and don’t let up for a second until your first production has wrapped up.

Are you looking for more people to join you?

We’re always on the lookout for fresh talent to swell our ranks. If you’re an actor, writer or director then we’re interested in hearing from you and getting examples of your work to see if you’d fit in well in Blackthorn. We tend to recruit from the 16-23 age range, but there’s an exception to every rule, with the possible exception of that rule about exceptions. So what comes next? For me? College! Well, rest first, and then I start college. But for Blackthorn it’s a very short break, followed by a meeting next month to decide what our next production (slated for performance in February 2010) shall be.

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“Winners / Grievance” runs from August 6th to 8th at the Cork Arts Theatre, Camden Court, Carroll’s Quay. Tickets are €12 each (or €10 at concession price) and are available from the Cork Arts Theatre’s box office at 021-4505624.