Totally Dublin’s preview of highlights from this year’s Fringe Festival continues with a look at festival centrepiece Thirteen.
The Boys Of Foley Street was one of the most talked-about and acclaimed pieces of theatre the country has produced for many years. Brave, accomplished and guerilla-esque, it forms part of ANU Productions’ four-part series on the community and regeneration of the area around Foley Street. Louise Lowe, ANU’s artistic director, tells us about their new project Thirteen to commemorate the 1913 Lockout using Twitter in a show that changes incrementally over 13 days.
What form will Thirteen take on in its function as a commemorative piece for the Lockout?
We look at the Lockout through the lens of now. So starting from the 31st of August and over the course of 13 days there will be a series of 13 pieces of individual work that will try to capture the Lockout ‘then as now’. Not in a way of recreating and re-enacting it, but in a way of understanding why it is that we are commemorating it and what it means to us now. By the last day it will be possible to even see all 13 pieces if someone should wish to.
What’s the communion between the 1913 Lockout and 2013?
There are so many parallels in many ways. Just looking at the role of the citizen, the idea of active citizenship. Thinking back to 1913, we want to stray away from what we think we know. So for example the statue on O’Connell Street of Larkin with his arms outstretched has become a symbol of 1913, but in fact that didn’t happen until 1924. Then again, looking at people who we know less about and looking at parallels for who they could be today and how their stories might manifest today.
How did your personal interest in the history and community of the area of Foley Street and Monto develop? What brought you to embark on a long-term four-part project?
The company was in residence in the Robert Wilson centre in New York. And we were snowed in. And while we were there we really started talking about why we were there and what were we most interested in doing. And I decided I wanted to look at this quarter-mile area had undergone very specific regeneration and rezoning. I was curious to look at how each regeneration had somehow not been successful. If you look at the area and its position to the Docklands and transport systems it should be thriving and yet it’s not. And ultimately our wish would be to hold all four pieces together and see where the contradictions are.
Thirteen runs throughout the festival from September 9th to 21st at a variety of locations across the city, see the guidebook for details or check out @anuproductions or #anuthirteen on twitter.
