Time travelling Irish language show set for Civic Theatre stage

‘STAIR’ is the “hilarious”, new interactive show from High Rock Productions.

A dusty box of ancient artefacts transports theatregoers back in time to meet a host of colourful characters, from hunter-gatherers, scholars and monks, Vikings and Normans, to revolutionaries and romantics.

Performed in accessible Irish, this physical theatre show tells the story of Ireland through the various tribes who have settled here.

It explores the origin of the different people who have come to call Ireland home in the past and encourages theatregoers in a “fun, innovative way” to appreciate and respect diverse culture and tradition in the present.

This week, The Echo sat down with Sean McDonagh of Hick Rock Productions to discuss ‘Stair’, which performs in the Civic Theatre on October 13 at 10:30am and 12:30pm.

‘Stair’ is kindly supported by Arts Council Ireland. For more information, contact mary@civictheatre.ie.

What can you tell us about ‘Stair’ without giving too much away?

‘Stair’ is great fun; it’s an exciting adventure story with creepy spiders and a chase through history for a time-travelling uncle and a host of colourful characters from our past.

It’s also an exploration of the origin of some Irish names and a celebration of all the tribes who’ve made this island their home.

What inspired this production?

The show is inspired by the idea that we all came from somewhere.

There are fascinating clues in our Irish names; O Lochlann does mean Viking after all.

It is also inspired by that lovely blend of mythology and factual history which makes up our early history.

And as ever, it’s inspired by the creativity of performers and directors who bring ideas alive in the rehearsal rooms.

We are also always inspired by a love of the Irish language.

We have always believed that the best way to learn Irish is to do fun stuff through Irish.

And this play is a lot of fun.

We have lots of workshops which we also do with primary and secondary students, which give them a chance to experience drama through the medium of Irish.

How do you approach the processes of this production (writing, directing, casting, etc.)?

The creative process is fascinating. We create shows to be performed through the medium of Irish, so we very consciously design shows that can be enjoyed by people of all levels of Irish.

For us this means we tend to make them very physical.

It’s a balancing act; we don’t start with a script, but at the same time we never go into a devising room with nothing.

There’s usually a lot of thought put into the ideas, story and character, and even set pieces or props we might use.

Then we get together some brilliant people for a few sessions to work on the ideas and some work lots don’t, and then we attempt to figure out how they might work all together.

Then there’s a lot of rehearsal work to choreograph the movement and dialogue or narration where needed.

Then we look at what we’ve got and often have to brutally hack bits that we spent a lot of time on but that just aren’t work and fill gaps with other ideas.

What would be your favourite part of working on this production so far, and why?

We had great fun doing our version of a classic physical theatre device, involving a coat stand and a cloak.

Suffice to say that we were so absorbed in it that we kept having to remind ourselves to leave it and work on other bits of the play.

We also love choreographing chase scenes, where people are in motion and swapping. characters.

I also loved the idea that we would have a novice monk working on the Book of Kells in a quiet monastery and that he would clumsily spill some ink on the page.

What challenges have been involved in this production so far, and how have you navigated them?

The main challenge in the production of ‘Stair’ and in many of our shows is bringing scenes with different characters alive while using one performer.

We have a lot of experience in this type of work at this stage, but we are forever trying to find new clever ways to switch characters.

We also had the usual head-melting logical problems that you all get with shows involving time travel.

There’s also the physicality of the shows.

We have a marvellous performer, Brian O. Suilleabháin, who has worked with us for a few years.

He has incredible energy and a brilliant recall for physical performance. So we all will jump in and out of parts to try things in different ways.

But in the end he has to try and bring all that together into one sequence.

What is next for High Rock Productions after ‘Stair’?

The feedback on ‘Stair’ has been fantastic so far. We would love to tour the show to schools and theatres nationally. We are hoping to bring it to the Hullabaloo Festival in Offaly in October, and it would be a brilliant choice for summer festivals who are looking for some great shows for all the family in the medium of Irish.

Who would you like to thank for helping to make this production possible?

We are very grateful to the Civic Theatre for funding a workshops programme in schools based on ‘Stair’ and for hosting the performances.

We are also grateful to Foras Na Gaeilge, who support all our work.

And of course all of the brilliant teachers and principals out there who value live theatre enough to book drama shows.

They give our children an experience that you can’t replicate by looking at a screen.

We have shows and drama workshops for all ages. For further information, contact highrock2011@gmail.com or visit highrockproductions.