THE EXCITING new Dublin company Corps Ensemble come to the Town Hall Theatre this month with its blistering production of Mark O’Rowe’s high-octane drama, Made In China.
O'Rowe's darkly humorous and poetic play is set in an alternative Dublin underworld. When the affable, but stupid, Paddy visits his friend Hughie to watch Chinese action movies, the appearance of local gangster Kilby upsets the evening's plans. In this twisted tale of kung-fu, prosthetic legs, and Nik Nak 'crips', a longstanding friendship turns into an opportunity for an ambitious vendetta with serious consequences.
Directed by Jed Murray, the production features Rex Ryan (Paddy ), Neill Fleming (Kilby ), and Edwin Mullane (Hughie ). During a frantic day of technical rehearsal ahead of the play’s opening night at the Viking Theatre in Clontarf kicking off its national tour, Mullane found time to chat about the company and the production, and he began by telling me how Corps Ensemble was founded last year.
“It started from chats I had with Tom Hickey who I’d trained under at the Focus," he says. "I am a big admirer of his physical movement and what he calls the gestural score on stage. Tom’s unique among Irish actors in the way he uses his body and he told me the influences for that came from the Pina Bausch Theatre in Germany.
"We were chatting about how there was no training in Ireland like that so a group of us started doing workshops with Fiona Cronin who had trained with Pina Bausch and it evolved from there. An ensemble started to form organically and we decided to set up a company. Myself and Rex Ryan talked about which companies we loved.
"I had worked with Druid and was really impressed with their sense of ensemble, and how that gave their work so much depth, while Rex was influenced by Labyrinth Theatre in New York and Steppenwolf, and they all came out of that tradition of ensemble and that establishes a special energy because of the trust and relationship among the actors. We then approached the Viking Theatre in Clontarf, they were very supportive and invited us to be their company in residence.”
Mullane, who is the company’s co-artistic director along with Ryan, explains why they chose Made In China; “In discussing the play people talk about O’Rowe’s fantastic language, its masculine energy, the verbal pyrotechnics and action but one thing that O’Rowe is phenomenal at is knowing how to activate the subconscious and people’s imagination.
"He’s not presenting the real world. To present that as an ensemble there has to be a lot of detailed work put into it, a real level of understanding of where the play is, what’s going on, the relationships it is founded on. All of that really attracted us to Mark’s work; it has depth like Enda Walsh and Conor McPherson and Tom Murphy, the master of them all; these writers who portray relationships that are deep and complex underneath their amazing words. We didn’t pick the play just because it was about Dublin characters; it was more the quality of the writing about the relationships.”
While O’Rowe’s play is described as showing ‘an alternative Dublin underworld’ how does the fact of our news headlines being regularly hogged by the real Dublin underworld affect its impact? “People are primed for the term ‘Dublin underworld’ even from watching Love/Hate and hearing stuff on the news,” Mullane admits. “Maybe that creates expectations but once you start watching the play you realise this isn’t naturalism, O’Rowe is nodding and winking at the real thing but he is using elements of it to bring out bigger themes and more global themes not just about Dublin. People around the world would understand the themes of masculinity and friendships and relationships that underpin the play.”
Mullane concludes with his thoughts on Hughie, the character he portrays; “Hughie is one of the favourite characters I have ever played. He is in total conflict. He is part of an underworld gang. He has a penchant for shopping – he loves John Rocha shirts and things you mightn’t associate with the gang. Also his mum is in hospital so he is going through a tough time. He has such a sweeping arc throughout the play. As the play’s action unfolds all the characters’ lives are changed forever and it is a dream to play a character who has that change within a few hours.”
Made in China is at the Town Hall on Monday March 20 at 8pm. Tickets are available via 091 - 569777 or www.tht.ie
