Dublin Fringe preview: Cork theatremaker Karen Cogan brings her blistering new play Drip Feed to Dublin Fringe; here, she writes for Culture about sexuality, stagnation and writing about the messiness of growing up female and queer in Ireland.
How am I here?
I’ve done a pool of boozy puke on her welcome mat, my left breast is flabbing out of my bra in a bid for freedom, I threw my holdy in knickers in a bin somewhere last night so I’m fecking free-bleeding and I am about to come face to face with HER.
We have all, surely at some stage, utterly mortified ourselves in the pursuit of love. Right?
You know, those insidious memories that wake you up, scarlet, at 4am? Brenda has more of those feelings than most.
Brenda, the protagonist of Drip Feed, is severely, hopelessly in love. But she is also stagnating, in Cork, unable to put one foot in front of the other to find a life that truly makes her feel contented.
I started writing Drip Feed during a period of frustration. I was rewriting and rewriting my first play The Half Of It. I had a deadline for a work in progress evening at RADA so I vomited Drip Feed out, swiftly and from my gut. It is my second full length play and it is now in development for television production. It has changed my life in many ways because the Soho Theatre in London and Fishamble came on board to produce it and it has opened a thousand doors that had been firmly shut to me career wise and I am hugely grateful.
Drip Feed is a good night out. It is full of Cork, joy, mortification, violent stew, apple sourz, a sexy toy elephant called Bono, gayness, honesty, rich language, loss and hope.
The story itself came from a visceral memory of obsession, of deep infatuation.
I wondered what would happen if that first intense fixated love never fizzled out.
Brenda has found first love later in life, so she is drowning in it.
I am interested in exploring characters that are stuck. I wanted to excavate some of those all-consuming feelings of infatuation but to give them to a gay woman in her 30s.
It is crucial to me that the women I write are nuanced, flawed and truthful. Brenda is neither a hero nor a tragedy. Her story is not being told because of her father or in spite of her brother or in the hopes of a husband. It is all her.
LISTEN: Karen Cogan talks to RTÉ Arena
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Drip Feed is visceral, fast and funny. We travel with Brenda on a messy odyssey through 90’s Cork.
Ireland was at an interesting point, from a queer culture point of view in 1998. There was a pretty rich gay scene in Cork, Loafers was a stalwart, the Other Place had wonderful nights of dancing and community and of course Sir Henry's. People danced in the back bar to Stevie G in low slung jeans, downing aftershocks and some of the best house DJs in the world played next door. There was a wildness and an inherent inclusivity to the gathering of Cork society of that time. We see Henry’s during its heyday, through the eyes of this woman who doesn’t quite fit in anywhere and is seeking a community.
We have all, surely at some stage, utterly mortified ourselves in the pursuit of love. Right?
Drip Feed is a good night out. It is full of Cork, joy, mortification, violent stew, apple sourz, a sexy toy elephant called Bono, gayness, honesty, rich language, loss and hope.
The sound design for the play is by Frank Sweeney, composer, DJ and sound designer extraordinaire. He has created a rhythmic and exciting design that underscores the play. One of the best directors in the country, Oonagh Murphy, has directed Drip Feed and I am honoured to have her on board, off the back of her success at Druid this Summer.
My first play The Half Of It premiered at Dublin Fringe last year in a site specific boxroom, we had an incredible time at the festival. It is one of the best Fringes in the world; I am thrilled to be coming back and to such a gorgeous space at the Project.
People coming to see Drip Feed can expect to laugh and maybe cry a bit and to hear a story they have not heard before from a woman, centre stage trying to become unstuck.
Drip Feed makes its Irish premiere at Project Arts Centre from Sep 19 – 22 for Dublin Fringe Festival 2018 - more info here.
