IN TODAY’S MINI-INTERVIEW with an ABSOLUT Fringe 2011 figure, we throw five rapid-fire questions at Does Anybody Ever writer and co-performer Sophie Meehan.
Does Anybody Ever is playing the Players Theatre from tomorrow until next Saturday at 8.30pm.
Sophie Meehan, tell us about your ABSOLUT Fringe:
Describe your show to TheJournal.ie’s readers in 20 words:
Does Anybody Ever explores a reality where relationships and experience are heightened, the need for exploration through play and our desperation for healing.
Do you have any special rituals you just have to carry out before a performance/reading/exhibition?
I always introduce myself to the stage floor in the hopes that our working relationship will be productive for both of us. I kiss it like the pope kisses airport tarmac.
What’s the best/worst audience reaction you’ve ever had to your work?
The best reaction I’ve had as an actor was when me and the other Children (her theatrical company) went to Vienna to the First World Festival of Youth Theatre with The Cusp Assignment by Doireann Coady and Shane Byrne. The audience went absolutely mad and we had a standing ovation and three encores. We were so gobsmacked and excited and hugging each other madly in the room off the stage before going back on. It was great!
As a director it was amazing to hear everybody’s reactions to Does Anybody Ever when it was first produced in Dublin Youth Theatre.
People really responded to it and wanted to talk about it after they’d seen it. Some people were trembling with the impact of it. On the first night I was so happy I had to lie down on the floor for a while.
What/who do you recommend we go see at Absolut Fringe 2011?
I’m excited to see more work from all the people who’ve influenced me starting out, so I’d go to THEATREclub’s Twenty Ten, Neil Watkins’
The Year of Magical Wanking, as well The Rough Magic SEEDS Programme’s Jumping Off the Earth and Nyree Yergainharsian’s Where Do I Start.
Also I’m excited to see Bird With Boy by Junk Ensemble in Kilmainham Gaol, I think it’s a really interesting venue and it sounds deadly.
And of course I’d reccomend Does Anybody Ever. Because it’s great like.
What has inspired you or made you happy today?
When I was searching for Bird With Boy I came across articles about a boy in Russia who was found raised as a pet with birds by his mother
and can only communicate through chirping. It shows how much an upbringing and environment can influence the makeup of your mind, which is also what my show’s about. Sometimes those strange stories can inspire work.
