We saw a 15 minute work in progress showing of Tardigrade during the Dublin Dance Festival in May. It was gorgeous, decadent and deranged, a cacophony of colour, sound and movement. There were six singers, three dancers, a tardigrade figure, video projections, and you. You’re opening a 45 minute version in the Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival this month. How have things developed since May?
Well, for one thing, I’ve gotten much more into tardigrades. I went out into my back garden and collected a moss sample, soaked it in water and got out my petri dishes and microscope. And, I’ve discovered another world. They [the tardigrades] are laying eggs, they’re getting it on, they’re fighting with giant worms… It’s like a Mexican soap opera down there. Sometimes, before I go to bed, I think “I’ll just spend a half hour with the tardigrades.” Witnessing this other existence has really brought it all together for me.
My understanding of the piece is it’s about separate, but parallel, worlds. And the tardigrade is symbolic of that, since it lives a rich existence at a level quite distinct from ours.
That’s one aspect. But there are other influences too, such as Hieronymous Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. What I enjoy about that painting is how dense it is. There’s so much detail, that you can take it in as a whole but it can be quite overwhelming. Something that I love is how, as an audience member, you have the choice to focus in on a detail, or focus on the whole and be overwhelmed.
Yes, the 15 minute version began at a crescendo. Each of the elements was dense in itself, and when taken together that density reached critical mass. The audience was blasted from start to finish with sensory input. Do you think you can maintain that over 45 minutes?
Well, I will introduce more individual parts, but I don’t want to lose the essence of that overwhelming sensation. It makes the show more interactive, because the audience member has to decide how they’re experiencing this multitude of realities they’re seeing. During the Dance Festival, people were saying to me “Oh my god, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen”. I’d been reading Baudrillard at the time, simulacra and simulation and all that, and those comments made me think of him because I’m creating this completely crazy, weird world and people can come and watch it and then come out [of the show] and think, “This is normality, this is reality”, when it’s not really, it’s just a system, a hyperreality. We create these realities, and then they create us. For me, there’s something quite serious about that, about trying to break the rules constantly, because we’re so conditioned, in everything we do, and even the way see things, when there’s a thousand ways of doing and seeing things.
There’s quite a bit of nudity in Tardigrade. Why?
In one regard, it’s about vulnerability. And I paint myself pink because, originally, it was a colour that represented purity. And I think purity is related to vulnerability. I wanted to show myself in a very open way, because you can get stepped on so easily if you exist in this world like that. That’s what’s interesting, and also slightly tragic. And then as well, painting myself pink has a relevance to my sexuality. Of all the colours I could have chosen to paint myself, I chose pink. And if that’s me, well then that’s who I am, that’s just Philip, with all my affectations – and the freedom to have those affectations is a freedom, just like anything else. To not feel bound by anything, that’s the task. And that’s what I try to achieve.
So there’s no narrative to the piece?
No.
There never is.
No, there never is. There are just individual relationships that happen in space at the same time. And that’s my story.
Philip Connaughton’s Tardigrade opens on September 10th (previews September 9th) in the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Tickets cost €15 or €13 with a concession. Tiger Dublin Fringe runs citywide from September 5th to 20th, for bookings see www.fringefest.com or call box office on 1850 FRINGE (374 643)
Words: Rachel Donnelly
Check out more of our Tiger Dublin Fringe Coverage here:
Kris Nelson, Artistic Director
The Company on The Rest Is Action
