Fireplay
The New Theatre, Dublin, 2015
Photography by James Ireland
About the play
"There's none of my blood or bones in you but I'd still feel them if they were broken."
Fireplay follows two brothers and a friend, Michael, living on the bad side of a bad town. Whole streets are being burnt down. The hospital is closed. You'd think there was no way out. Then a fire-obsessed man appears to Michael in the middle of the night: and Michael wants to help his friends.
Fireplay is family and freedom and brothers and friends and claustrophobia and hating and loving and things going bump in the night.
Performed at the New Theatre Dublin, 2015.
Press and Reviews
"Amidst the playful fraternal dialogue there are leaps into poetry [...] there are lines wherein Luke declares his brotherly love, beautifully measured by Gleeson, where a golden connection with the audience is truly felt."
"The makings of a repressed masculine reality"
- Musings in Intermissions
Theatrical Poster by Colm Summers
About the process (from programme notes)
Fireplay is a tragic story. Fireplay is family and freedom and brothers and friends and claustrophobia and hating and loving and things going bump in the night.
Fireplay is about three people living together - trapped in close quarters, trapped with each other. The ensemble directing and performing the show have been living together, trapped in close quarters, trapped with each other, trapped with their stage manager - for the entire month leading up to the performance. Rehearsing, eating, breathing, sleeping, and living with communal hot water bottles and too many private jokes in their bunker in Drumcondra. As well as being convenient, this has been an interesting and irrefutable way for them to literally live the play, and create an astonishing show for you.
After immersing themselves in the words and world of Fireplay, the directing-acting ensemble have responded to and re-imagined the original text. The devising team were particularly interested in human impulses, and were determined to create a fully embodied, personal performances that stages the words on the page in a new and exciting way.
Production information
Directed by The Ensemble
Jack O'Donoghue, Colm Gleeson, Hugo Lau, Colm Summers, and Honi Cooke
Written by James Ireland, with thanks to Alex Ireland, Stefan Knap, and Matt Jones for their work on the first versions of the script
Re-devised by The Ensemble
Performed by Jack O'Donoghue, Colm Gleeson, Hugo Lau, and Colm Summers
Stage Managed by Honi Cooke
Produced by Cyclamen Theatre
Production Management by James Ireland
Lighting by Dara Hoban
Set by Eoin Lennon
Costume by Colm Summers
Sound by Hugo Lau
Marketing by Colm Summers, Eloise Hendy, James Ireland, and Tim Scott
Additional Crew: John Gunning
Photography by James Ireland