Simon and Daz, two typical ‘lads’ still amused by innuendo and crude humour, whittle away the hours in their office by playing online games. Throughout the play the two characters move in and out of the ‘real’ world and that of online gaming. Instead of preaching the usual anti-modernity message, actors Karl Quinn and Will Irvine insist the show offers two very different perspectives on our relationship to the Internet, praising its ability to foster relationships across space and offer opportunities for a totally different life but also criticising its tendency to isolate users from their more immediate surroundings.
But don’t worry if you’re not a diehard Twitter tweeter or fluent in all things Facebook, most of the online scenes take place in fictional gaming settings, making the play pre-Internet generation friendly. Similarly, behind the twenty-something year-old male humour, is a play that is both smart and funny for men and women, young and old alike.
Tell us about ‘Connected’. What’s the significance of the title?
Karl: One of the things I love about the title is it’s a word that’s always used with technology: ‘connect to your friends,’ ‘connect to the outside world,’ ‘connect with the wider experience’. So we wanted to explore whether these connections had any ripples in the real world. There’s lost of these amazing stories like an ordinary suburban woman in America but online she’s this extraordinarily successful, what’s the word, pimp? – no madam – who runs a brothel.
Will: Well that’s an extreme example but everyone has a Facebook page where they present themselves as someone whose life is fun and wild but you know that person is actually bipolar, weeping at home on the weekends. So, how the Internet helps us hide and reveal ourselves – these are the kind of highfalutin ideas behind the show which is basically a series of cock-jokes.
So is this a comedy with a serious anti-technology message behind it?
Will: Well, initially when we started we were probably erring on the lines of the Internet as a substitute for meaningful connections. So the play was going to be something crap like a guy breaks up with the Internet, but we realised that would give a very imbalanced view. We decided to root the play in a friendship between two guys and their different approaches to the Internet. So one guy is restless with this friendship he feels is stunted after working for six years in an office with a guy he’s known since college, still sitting around talking about girls and dick-jokes and playing on-line war games. And the other guy thinks this is great. Hopefully we offer them both up as valid experiences and ask, ‘Where’s the truth in both of these?’
Who plays which character?
Will: I’m the searcher, Simon, whose looking for something better in his life
Karl: And everything is just fine for my character, Daz
Will: But we each have a bit of both of them in us, the romantic and the pragmatist.
Where do you go in the online world?
Will: A lot of stuff happens in Second Life. We’ve also invented online worlds, like an incredibly boring online fishing game as an example of the boring things you can do online.
Karl: Essentially none of the places we go online exist because it’s mainly about the relationship between these two guys than being a commentary on the Internet.
Do you find the audience can easily relate to the show?
We did it twice in Dublin in the Absolut Fringe last year. The first time we had a fairly young audience and it got a really positive response. The second time we did it, it was geared towards an older crowd which worried us because a lot of the humour is very laddish. So while a lot of people from the first performance related to it on a personal level, those from the second performance said, ‘Ya, that’s just like my brother’ or ‘Is that really how men think? I’ve always wondered’.
Karl: The second audience did enjoy the office stuff more. There was that factor of ‘Ugh, that’s just like our office’.
You said the humour was ‘laddish,’ elaborate please.
Will: The references would be the In Betweeners and Peep Show. We didn’t base the play on those shows but it’s definitely that brand of comedy.
Karl: It’s laughing at laddish humour rather than laddish humour.
Will: Ya that’s a good distinction, it’s holding up the way men communicate and saying… well not saying anything, asking people to think.
Can you give us an example of one of your best jokes in the play?
Will: Well we just cut our best joke today because it’s too gross.
Karl: That is so embarrassing!
Will: Out of context it just sounds awful.
Karl: That is the most embarrassing I’ve ever heard! You’re not going to say it are you?
Will: I’m not going to say it.
Is comedy your specialty?
Will: No, comic roles have only come to me very late in my career. When I came out of college I was wanted to make really meaningful theatre that was full of, you know, meaning. But at this point in my life I really want people to enjoy theatre.
Karl: Same, ten years of Elizabethan tragedies before moving on to physical comedies.
How was the Fringe festival? Successful?
Will: Ya, we got nominated for the Bewley’s Little Gem Award for ‘Best Show Under An Hour’. We were thrilled because it was the first time we had written as a team. The moment before we went on stage we looked at each other, realising there was no one to blame if it went terribly wrong. We were just completely petrified. But it went amazingly well. We were expecting a friendly couple of claps but they were cheering us back on. We got a lot of interest from different venues and the Project.
Karl: People laughed for an hour, we couldn’t have been happier. It’s actually pretty extraordinary to go from Fringe festival to Project Upstairs.
What are your plans for the show now?
Will: There’s interest in touring with it at some stage. It’s just a case of blocking off time when we’re both free because we’re so terribly successful. We’re also approaching comedy festivals since ‘Connected’ happens to be in a very interesting niche between comedy and theatre.
Why should people see this play?
Will: I’ve been involved in theatre for ten years now and often had to drag my friends to see plays, especially when I was doing tragic meaningful plays. But this show is actually good fun.
Karl: I brought up some of my family to see it. They usually don’t go to the theatre or leave during the interval. It’s just not for them. So it was brilliant this time to have them come and actually enjoy it. It certainly has audience appeal, it’s not hard work but hopefully it’s smart. It’s edu-tainment.
Connected runs from 8 – 19th February at the Project Arts Centre.
Words: Aine Pearl Pennello
