Conversations on a Playwright is a biennial series of acting masterclasses, talks and discussions, leading to a showing of work at Dublin's Lir Academy - the event is focused on the work of Tom Murphy, a true giant of 20th century Irish theatre.
Below, Tom Murphy's partner Jane Brennan talks about the genesis of Conversations on a Playwright, and introduces this year's session.
The genesis of the idea for Conversations on a Playwright came from my friend the actor Frank McCusker. He was working on a play when Tom died in 2018 with a large cast of young actors, most of whom had just graduated from drama school.
He told me how aware they had been of Tom as a towering presence in Irish theatre but that somewhat surprisingly, they hadn't tackled or encountered his work at drama school. It seemed that the plays were regarded as too psychologically complex for young performers with little theatrical or life experience.
Listen: RTÉ Arena talks to Tom Murphy in 2010
Frank said that he felt it would be of enormous benefit to these terrific young actors, as well as being a 'fittingly practical’ tribute to Tom, to set up a series of workshops or masterclasses looking specifically at his work and that they should be given by actors who had all worked in the rehearsal room with him.
A pinprick of light appeared through the fog of grief. It was such an uplifting idea - passing the torch on to a new generation. I knew Tom would have loved it. The close observation of life and character in Tom’s plays requires the full range of acting skills.
The technical, physical and emotional demands bring out the best in his actors and this is why they love performing in his plays and why so many have given career defining performances in them: Siobhan McKenna and Marie Mullen in Bailegangaire, Tom Hickey and Godfrey Quigley in The Gigli Concert, Sean McGinley in A Whistle in the Dark, Ray McBride in Conversations on a Homecoming and Tony Doyle in Too Late for Logic, to mention but a few.
Watch: The Works Presents: Tom Murphy - see the full episode here, via RTÉ Player
The technical demands of observing the punctuation which provides the pulse and vitality of the language is key - ‘sound is character’ as he used to say. Tom used to tap his foot rhythmically when reading his own work aloud. No dot or comma is accidental. He wrote in an attempt, as he said, ‘to recreate the feeling of life’. These are big plays which scale the depths and heights of human experience. They are not for the faint of heart.
Frank and I approached Loughlin Deegan at the Lir Academy to see if this idea would be of any interest. He immediately responded positively and generously offered us the Lir as a venue. He and his staff have been a constant support. He recommended that we get ourselves a good producer and we all felt that we could do no better than Una Carmody, who had produced the 6-play season of Tom’s plays at The Abbey Theatre in 2001. She came on board and helped us to shape and develop the idea. The first iteration of Conversations on a Playwright was in April 2019, just coming up to the first anniversary of Tom’s death that May.
Watch: Tom Murphy's death reported on RTÉ News, May 2018
This year, after all the uncertainty, we are delighted to be presenting it again and this time including playwrights, in association with Project Arts Centre, as well as actors. The numerous applications to take part movingly revealed to me that the passion for Tom’s work burns brightly and that there is a hunger out there to get back to some big meaty, juicy theatre.
‘I can only hold my breath at the thought.’
Find out more about Conversations On A Playwright 2021 here.
