INTERVIEW: Irish Rep’s new play is a painful reminder of COVID realities
Photo: Marty Rea stars in the new virtual play The Gifts You Gave to the Dark. Photo courtesy of Irish Rep / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
The Irish Repertory Theatre, sidelined because of COVID-19 like many other off-Broadway companies, has transformed their art over the past few months and are now offering online content for their dedicated fan base. Their latest project is the virtual play The Gifts You Gave to the Dark by Darren Murphy and directed by Caitríona McLaughlin.
The show stars Marty Rea, Seán McGinley and Marie Mullen, and viewers can check out the taped YouTube performance through Oct. 31. All virtual viewings are free of charge.
Rea plays the character of Tom, who has contracted COVID-19 and thus living the quarantine life in Belfast. The timing couldn’t be worse because his mother (Mullen) is in her own sickbed in Dublin, getting ready to die. The two are unable to meet, so they must connect via a smartphone, helpful set up by Tom’s uncle, Larry (McGinley). Their conversations, and in particular the story that Tom shares on the call, are heartbreaking and very much tied into the new realities of this pandemic.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Rea about the new production. He is best known for his performances in Epiphany, DruidShakespeare — Richard II, King of the Castle and The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Was acting in this virtual play similar or different than acting in a live stage version?
Very different. And it was different from doing any other type of screen work, too. I was alone at home in my guest bedroom acting into my phone screen to the other actors, Marie and Sean. We did it, I think, two or three times in one take each time. It’s not the sort of piece you can do bits of and jump in and out. So it felt pretty real — or rather the suspension of disbelief was easier to achieve.
Do you find the story timely and poignant considering so many families have gone through similar experiences?
Of course. The various stories of how older people have been unable to be with their families and friends while they’ve been ill or tragically dying, I found devastating and inhumane. COVID-19 has so turned our lives upside down, and the tragic situation of losing a loved one during lockdown must’ve been truly heart-breaking. To not be able to be with someone, physically at their side at the end, goes against our fundamental human instincts. It has to be one of the cruellest aspects of the pandemic.
How would you describe your character of the son?
He’s an actor and a poet at heart — he’s an artist. He’s found himself in a situation where he’s unable to be at his mother’s side in her last moments. After a lifetime of having her support and strength to see him through his difficulties, he now has to see her through hers. He has to bring her home, and he uses the act of storytelling to retrace the last journey home from Dublin to Belfast that they made together. And so he becomes her guide at the last to deliver her over. It’s a real ‘making of the man’ moment, and I imagined him as a guy that maybe needed to step up in life in general to take on responsibility more. So this was a real make or break moment.
How did you rehearse for the production and still maintain social distancing?
We all were in our separate homes and contacting via Zoom like everyone else it seems! Marie and Sean are married in real life, so they had been together already, which helped immensely. How lucky for us to be able to get two of Ireland’s most acclaimed actors not only available and willing but also able to be close together! We three have worked closely together before with Druid, so we know each other very well. And Caitriona was a very calming and understanding presence as director. She understood that it wasn’t something we could run and run over and over. I do remember being quite tired and headache-y after doing it.
Do you believe art has the power to heal?
I believe it has the power to help us to heal ourselves, yes — emotionally and mentally. Art is a uniquely human (as far as we know!) way of communicating and often wants to investigate and contemplate the darker, tougher, more elusive aspects of what is to be human and live the human experience. Anytime we are made to stop and think, to re-evaluate and consider the grey areas we are bettering ourselves, in our minds and in our hearts. I’d consider that a type of healing, especially in an age where we are too quick to cast judgement and cast it harshly.
What do you believe theater will look like after the pandemic?
I think it will look a bit odd for a while. A bit empty and a bit tentative maybe. But I also feel that theatre is a very vibrant and collaborative art form — it requires the live audience to complete itself. Brian Friel once said, I believe, that a play wasn’t finished until actors had spoken and moved it. Well, a production isn’t finished until an audience has sat in front of it and engaged in that almost metaphysical to and fro between them and the action in front of them.
It’s a hard thing to explain, but you know it when it happens, you can feel it. And it feels good, you feel better from it, like you’ve reached up and achieved something. I think we’ll need to get back to that as soon as possible because we’ll miss it; it’s an essential part of us that we’ve been engaging in for centuries. Once this virus has done its worst, we’ll pick up and get back to life again like we’ve done many times before throughout history. We’re stronger than it, and so is theatre. Otherwise we would have been beaten long ago.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, starring Marty Rea, Seán McGinley and Marie Mullen, is available for free until Oct. 31. Click here for more information.
