Confession time: I only went to see October because my Mum (who has an allergic reaction to online booking-charges) sent me down to the box office to buy tickets and in a reward for ‘beating the system’, she said she’d bring me along too. I had never been to the Olympia to see a play, it was definitely more of a live-music sort of venue for me, so I was really intrigued to see what it could offer as a theatre space. The theatre night in question was really bizarre for me. I was used to taking my comfortable seat in the Abbey or the Gate while listening to tinkling piano and discussing the set and ambience knowingly with a fellow drama student. Here I was squashed into (let’s be honest) a terribly painful seat in the Olympia while ushers were selling ice-cream and advertisements were being projected onto the fire safety curtain onstage.
What surprised me the most was that I really enjoyed the show. True, it was a bit rough-around-the-edges and lacked poetry in the words, and at times seemed a bit too much like your mother wrote it but that’s what I liked. It lacked pretence. I felt like it was the first piece of theatre I’d seen in a while that was an actual slice of life today, it felt like reality. Now, that’s not to say that reality on stage is what I look for as an audience member, but I felt that October tackled real problems that hit real people in Ireland today.
October makes use of modern technology too, which I love to see in the theatre. For example, our main set (designed by Joe Vanek) is a kitchen and the back garden. There is a 21st birthday party in the house, and rather than employ twenty extra actors to give the illusion of a packed house, a projection of the party going on in the rest of the house was shown on the kitchen wall. This theatrical trick worked very well and as an explosion of plastic cups and paper plates fell from the gantries, we really got the atmosphere of a trashed house post-party. October not only takes modern Ireland and places it on stage (let’s not forget the array of recession jokes), it is also contemporary in its theatricality.
One of the things that really drew me to see October was the fact that it was a new work, written by a female playwright, Fiona Looney. In my small academic theatre world, we are constantly questioning why there are so few recognised female playwrights in Ireland. Not once have I heard Looney’s name in an academic context. This may have to do with the fact that October is only her second piece of dramatic work. However, I wonder whether it’s because October seems to be commercial. Because of Looney’s success as a writer previous to her dive into playwriting, she did not need to start out in smaller and experimental theatre spaces such as The Project Arts Centre and work her way up as so many Irish playwrights do, her name was enough to sell-out a large space like the Olympia with tickets at €40 a pop. So, is success measured in premiering in our National Theatre, does it matter if the show is in a less prestigious space but sells more seats? Does the theatre world frown on Looney’s career as a journalist, do we see her as someone who has bought her way into theatre-making or is she a legitimate playwright no matter where she is produced, or how it is marketed?
October is certainly no masterpiece. Our protagonist Noirin (Pauline McLynn) is sarcastic, and very heavy on the one-liners. Her ‘quick-wit’ often misses, and the constant hit of sarcastic jabs does get old very quickly. The play is long, and could do with a good edit. The language is simple and unpoetic, but I do think that this is to the play’s advantage; it is very accessible, which is perhaps one reason why it is in the Olympia and not the Gate. October will also date very quickly; I don’t see it having a long life with its references to pop culture today. However, the freshness of the play does make it very enjoyable for today’s audiences.
I think what has surprised me most about this whole Olympia experience is that October is not even measured in theatre circles today. I was very entertained and challenged the night I went to see October, and it was a packed house. I found it so bizarre that people are not even discussing it as it raises so many questions about carers in Ireland and the responsibilities of family when a family member becomes sick with a debilitating disease. Even researching October online, there are so few reviews. Was the play so much of a non-event that it wasn’t even worth talking about? Or, if it had been produced in the Project or the Peacock would it have been a different story? From this experience I would certainly consider the Olympia as a reputable theatre space…well…when they change their seats and lower their ticket prices..!