It's somehow fitting
that Rachel O'Riordan's swansong as artistic head of Perth Theatre is
Cinderella. Here, after all, is an age-old tale of how a young woman
went to the ball as a stranger before leaving all about her dazzled
before she disappears. So it has been with O'Riordan's three-year
tenure in Perth, which has seen the Cork-born director arrive in
Scotland as an unknown quantity and pretty much revitalise one of the
country's oldest producing houses with some bold programming and even
bolder results that have increased audiences, drawn critical praise
and won awards.
For her final
production, O'Riordan persuaded playwright Alan McHugh to re-jig his
original script so that the action now takes place in a theatre
rather than the stately home of his original. Coming on the eve of
the theatre going dark for two years as it commences a fourteen
million pound redevelopment, this is O'Riordan's way of saying
goodbye to the theatre she's called home for the last three years.
“I'm quite
deliberately referencing the fact that the theatre's closing,”
O'Riordan says, taking a breather from panto-land in the theatre's
restaurant. “Not overtly, but it's just a little nod to how fond I
am of Perth Theatre, and of theatre in general and all the people who
work in it. It's a little piece of self-referencing meta-theatre to
go out with. I didn't know I was leaving when we decided to do that.
It was more about the theatre closing, and trying to remind the
audience how important this theatre is.”
The announcement of
O'Riordan's imminent departure from Perth to take the helm of the
Sherman Cymru theatre in Cardiff in February 2014 may have been good
news for Wales, but, on the eve of the theatre's closure, for Perth
it looked like the fairytale was over. This was especially the case
when it was announced just a week later that Jacqueline McKay, chief
executive of Horsecross Arts, the body in charge of both Perth
Theatre and Perth Concert Hall, had suddenly stepped down from her
post for reasons which have yet to be made clear. Anyone of a
superstitious persuasion might suspect that the curse of Macbeth,
which O'Riordan had just directed, had fated such a turn of events.
As O'Riordan points out, however, the the two announcements were
unconnected, and their close proximity was an unfortunate
coincidence.
“Genuinely,” she
says, “the two announcements weren't connected in any way. I was
approached for the Sherman job. I wasn't looking, and had no desire
to leave, but the Sherman approached me a while ago. The process of
these things takes so long, so it wasn't as if it happened overnight.
“I had it in my head
when I arrived here that I would be in Perth for five years, and saw
it very much being a step on a journey. While Perth Theatre being
closed is a very exciting time, I do need some kind of stage to do my
work, and when the Sherman approached me, it felt like the right
thing to do.
“Leaving Scotland
now, however, is a tough one for me, because I felt I'd just found my
groove. I love it here, and I've had three of the best years of my
theatrical life here. I feel like I've made friends and connections
with people in Scottish theatre who I want to work with in Wales. The
first co-production I did here was doing [Conor McPherson's play] The
Seafarer with the Lyric in Belfast, so that was me bringing all my
Northern Irish connections to Scotland, and now I'm taking those with
me to Wales along with all my Scottish connections, and hopefully do
co-productions between the nations that way. I like the vibe here.
There's a real sense of socialism about the way people work, and we
showed with The Seafarer that you can co-produce with theatres from
different countries involved.”
If there is a
restlessness at play in O'Riordan's dynamic artistic sensibility,
while leaving Perth will be a wrench, the prospect of taking over the
biggest producing house in Wales is one she clearly relishes.
“I'm cursed with
ambition,” she says.
This has shown in her
work at Perth, from her opening production of Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night in 2011 through to a look at Frank McGuinness' play, Someone
Who'll Watch Over Me, her award-winning production of The Seafarer
and this year's mystical and very male take on Macbeth. Ask what
she's most proud of during her time in Perth, however, and, rather
than single out any particular show, O'Riordan answers “My team.
They are by far and away the best team I've ever worked with. The
reason I've made good work here is because I've had that kind of
support. And that's hard to leave, even though I hope I'm leaving on
a high.”
O'Riordan is full of
praise too for Jane Spiers, the then chief executive of Horsecross
who took a chance on hiring someone outwith the immediate Scottish
scene. Any advertisements for O'Riordan's replacement won't be placed
until a new chief executive for Horsecross is in place. While she is
clearly a tough act to follow, one only hopes whoever makes the new
appointment will apply the same sense of vision as Spiers did when
appointing O'Riordan.
O'Riordan seems
genuinely sad to be leaving Perth, and her conversation is tinged
with emotion. One suspects, however, that this won't be the last that
Scotland's theatre scene sees of her work. She was due to direct
something at the Tron, who co-produced Macbeth with Perth, but the
move to Cardiff has put the kibosh on that. She also has a big
project in the pipeline, which she can't talk about, not even to say
whether it's taking place in Scotland or not.
Whatever happens next,
both for Perth and O'Riordan, it is clear that she has left her mark
as a crucial player in Scotland's theatrical landscape.
“I've worked very
hard,” O'Riordan says. “For the last three years this theatre has
been my life. If I have achieved any kind of legacy here, that's for
other people to decide. The way I work is all or nothing, which makes
it sound like it was all about labour, but there was an awful lot of
love as well. I hope I've brought a bit of rock and roll to Perth,
and I hope whoever the next director of theatre is here can bring
something new to the table, and make Perth Theatre even more special
than it already is.”
Cinderella, Perth
Theatre, December 6th-January 4th 2014.
ends
Rachel O'Riordan – A
life onstage
Rachel O'Riordan was
born in Cork, Eire, and trained as a ballet dancer before studying
English and theatre. She then did a PhD entitled Shakespeare's
Physical Texts.
O'Riordan worked as a
choreographer and movement director, before co-founding the
Belfast-based Ransom theatre company in 2002 to direct Richard
Dormer's play, Hurricane, in which Dormer played snooker legend, Alex
Higgins. The play was a hit in Edinburgh, London and New York, and
led to O'Riordan directing a season for the Peter Hall Company, with
whom she directed productions of Miss Julie and Animal Farm.
With Ransom, O'Riordan
commissioned assorted new plays, and, working closely with Paines
Plough and Soho Theatre, ran Writers on the Edge, a three year
programme to develop women writers in Northern Ireland.
In her first season as
Horsecross' director of theatre at Perth Theatre in 2011, O'Riordan
directed Twelfth Night, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me and Ron
Hutchinson's Hollywood romp, Moonlight and Magnolias.
In her 2012/2013
season, O'Riordan directed the female version of Neil Simon's The Odd
couple, Mother Goose and Conor McPherson's The Seafarer, the latter
a co-production with the Lyric, Belfast which won two Critics Awards
for Theatre in Scotland.
This season saw
O'Riordan direct Macbeth in co-production with the Tron Theatre,
Glasgow, ending her tenure with Cinderella, which opens this week.
In February 2014
O'Riordan will take up her post as artistic director of the Sherman
Cymru in Cardiff.
The Herald, December 3rd 2013
ends
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