WORDS Katherine Murphy
“It’s OK to get lost,” according to Marc Atkinson, director of Sugarglass Theatre Company. Getting lost in the theatre is nothing new, but for this emerging theatre collective “lost” takes on a whole new realm of meaning. The actors become lost in the text as the words wash over them and flow into the audience, creating a dynamic that seeks to engage as well as entertain.
“It’s so circular, almost every word connects to something else in the play,” says Marc, adding that Tender Napalm is “a fairytale from a classic writer, but addressing a modern psyche.” It’s the story of a Man and Woman, stranded amid the dreamlike wreckage of their love, both surreal and highly realistic. While he admits the work could be considered “deeply political”, it does not tend towards the didactic style that has ruled the Irish stage as of late. Instead of beginning with nothing they “begin with the idea and the conversation that [they] want to start”.
This approach places the two actors in a compromising position. Erica Murray and Aaron Heffernan are established in their own right, with a Best Actress Nomination (Dublin Fringe) and a coveted Abbey role respectively. Although Aaron is quick to point out there is no difference in his work ethic when approaching the national stage or Sugarglass, he notes the innate divide between a “two-hander and strongly ensemble [piece]”. A former Classics and Drama student in Trinity College, he links Ancient Greece with Dublin theatre through the “Trojan Horse Theory: in which the audience do not know what it is at first glance . . . but a day, a week, a year later there’s some sort of resonance.” Marc also refers to this theory in a less academic fashion, calling it “an itch, unsure about what it is”.
Considering these complementary views on theatre I wonder whether they’ve felt like adults in the real world after graduation, a feeling that shakes most graduates to the core, but seems to have eluded the company. Aaron’s response is that the most unsettling aspect of leaving college is the “User Expired” message that appears on the campus computers.
THE PLAY RESONATED WITH PEOPLE OF OUR GENERATION
But Sugarglass are far from their expiration date; in fact, Tender Napalm “feels like a young play”. “It couldn’t have been written before Facebook, in which actual life is a virtual story,” says Marc, adding “It resonates with people of our generation without being a play for people of our own generation.”
And looking back on the company’s track record, they certainly gravitate towards texts that most college students would find challenging. From Beckett’s shorts to the Steppenwolf myth, Sugarglass root each production in stories that are not only theatrical but almost literary in nature. Philip Ridley’s Tender Napalm is no different. A beautifully constructed linguistic labyrinth in which “strange things become normalized”, and its’ Irish debut is safe in the hands of those who understand the challenges ahead.
Sugarglass consists of four members: Marc Atkinson, Colm McNally, Jack Berrill, and Christina Matthews, forming “by accident” without any intention to create a production company. But this serendipity was more than luck: it was fate. As the director, Marc is comfortable and at ease, having acted as the chair of DU Players during his student life. The other company members have carved out very specific roles for themselves as Production Manager, Designer and Stage Manager. They are “interested in very different aspects of production”, says Marc, while maintaining thematic consistency in their work.
Having established that getting lost is an integral part of the process, how does this full-scale production team deal with epic sets and artistically-rendered ideas that appear fully realized on stage? “Style comes later on . . . [the text] becomes something [else],” says Marc, alluding to the over-arching theme of the company: texts presented in the most innovative fashions. This central concept lead to reviews that called Sugarglass “staggeringly original”, and also a nomination for the Fringe’s most contested award: Spirit of the Fringe (previous winners have included WillFredd and THEATREclub).
Although the company has a wide range of influences, it’s the avant-garde director Robert Wilson who stands out for this ensemble. He inspired the troupe to “get away from what it is, and instead find [their] way through it”. This method of working is more time-consuming than the average show, with the company preferring two-month rehearsal periods, in stark comparison with the standard three-week mould. And they are certainly aware of their luck in this respect: when asked about the future they are just as carefully optimistic, looking for not only artistic inspiration, but “potentially finding a big space, an empty warehouse . . . and perhaps a workshop for making [sets]”. Ethica (Samuel Beckett, 2012), All Hell Lay Beneath (Dublin Fringe, 2012) and Tender Napalm (Project Arts Centre, 2012) are all “ambitious enough from a production end”. Marc notes the dedication of the entire company during the All Hell Lay Beneath considering that “none of [them] had worked on anything like that before”. He jokingly adds that “walking in the venue and finding your actors scrubbing the kitchen” goes above and beyond what we usually expect from thespians.
And perhaps this is what makes Sugarglass Theatre different: they expect more of us as an audience and more of the actors as performers. Aaron says that the two characters are “strangely intimate but at a distance”, and the same thing can be said for the spectators. Ultimately, their work is less academic than the practices behind it as “it depends on who you are and what you make.” Getting lost in the work of Sugarglass is easy because they’re only beginning their artistic journey as an ensemble, as a production company, and as young performers. They are still finding their feet and I just hope that they will continue to lose themselves on stage every night.
