Phil Kingston, Community and Education Manager at the Abbey Theatre, writes about Tracy Martin's acclaimed new play Dublin Will Show You How, which runs at The Complex, Dublin from April 9th - 13th.
Trust is scarce in the world Tracy Martin has created, it's been undermined by fear, addiction and poverty. There's a wariness of the motives of anyone who tries to come close. Balancing this is an indomitable urge to care for and connect with others, to form community in a world where selfishness is considered more profitable.
It’s against this backdrop that Dublin Will Show You How was made.
This play wouldn't exist without extraordinary levels of trust. Not just the usual trust of making anything honest in a world increasingly inimical to candour, but the deeper trust of the many women of the north inner city who believed their stories needed telling and could be told through theatre.
Watch: Tracy Martin talks to RTÉ Arena about Dublin Will Show You How:
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Vanessa Fielding, the visionary leader of The Complex and the director of this play, first approached us in 2016 saying the issue of loansharking and intimidation was blighting the lives of local communities. She trusted a partnership with Ireland's National Theatre would help raise awareness and attract more support. Dublin City Council also trusted us to link both their social and artistic concerns and gave their support.
Trust is scarce in the world Tracy Martin has created, it's been undermined by fear, addiction and poverty.
Then in June 2017, we invited women's groups, interested artists and An Garda Siochána to an assembly, hoping the mixture of performance and debate would persuade them to take part in the project. At first cautious, the audience were drawn in by performance artists and musicians, listened intently to passionate monologues from Joe O’Byrne and Roxanna Nic Liam and shared their own poetry and music. By the end of the two hours, everyone was talking, sharing, and opening up about a subject where secrecy and shame is the norm. We asked the women to trust us.
They did and over the next nine months of workshops led by Vanessa, Tracy listened to their lives. She turned their experiences into a specific story, without being specific about who had told them. Because even though philosophically you sometimes you have to create fiction to tell a truth more deeply, practically it is still dangerous for many of our collaborators to be identified.
Out of this world of suspicion, and occasional intense love, our passionate cast have honoured these women’s stories. We hope, and trust, you’ll understand.
Dublin Will Show You How is at The Complex, Dublin from April 9th - 13th
