SO, WHAT have you all been doing during lockdown, then? Well, not having sex for one thing, according to Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, who cheerfully reveals this has been a recurring theme for writers whose work will be seen on stage next week in one of the north's first live theatre events since March.
As artistic director of No Touching Theatre Festival, a collaborative project uniting writers, directors and actors in a series of short, high-end plays running at the Accidental Theatre in Belfast, she read over 200 submissions, mostly humorous, creative, new work.
“One of the main themes coming through was what we called Sexual Covid comedy,” she says. “A lot of the plays are about not being able to have sex during lockdown. There seems to have been a lot of frustrated writers out there.
“At the same time, many selected for performance have nothing to do with the pandemic and totally take you away from that world – there’s a great little piece about a mother taking over her son’s Deliveroo route and it's brilliant. There’s a good mix, really – comedy, mostly, but many tender pieces as well. They run the gamut, but there is still a feeling of connectivity; they all feel connected to the moment we’re in right now, just in different ways.”
In all, the festival team -– also comprising Oisin Kearney (associate director and programmer); Emily Foran (associate director and programmer) and Gina Donnelly (technical manager and programmer) – has curated the work of 21 writers, 12 directors and 33 actors into eight short plays (five to 10 minutes in length) which will be performed without touching and minus props or musical elements, to socially distanced audiences of 20 people each evening.
Everything is stripped right back to just the actor/actors and the dialogue for the plays which are also showing online via the Accidental website in what for Smyth – currently resident artist in the MAC Theatre, Belfast – hopes will be a “crowd funder” for the theatre industry, with “every single penny” going to the artists involved.
Smyth, an award-winning playwright and director who trained in Dublin but has recently based herself in Belfast, says the No Touching project is all about shining a light on new talent while “tapping into the times” and encouraging people back into the theatre again.
“We wanted to make something that was collaborative, that we felt people could associate with, as a group, and which would give people confidence to be creative but not have to stand out on their own,” she says. “My first play was presented in the Collaborations Festival 2015, in Smock Alley [Dublin] and I remember it gave me great confidence, to be working under the umbrella of a festival.
“We have all been feeling like we’re in dire straits because there hasn’t been the means to get work out at the moment, so, No Touching is facilitating other people’s work at a time when everyone needs encouragement and artists need to regain a sense of control and action.”
Signed by the Curtis Brown literary and talent agency earlier this year, Smyth was the playwright on Rough Magic’s SEEDS programme 2018-2020 and has recently completed commissions for the Abbey Theatre (Party Party) and Fishamble New Play Company (Wild Horses). Her plays SAUCE and All Honey (Fishamble New Writing Award 2017) will be published by Nick Hern Books later this year and are both currently being adapted for television.
“I’m over the moon to have the opportunity to adapt two of my plays for TV, as I’ve always wanted to write for television,” she says, “but there is just something about live theatre, about strangers congregating in a dark room, that cannot be replicated online or in film or television.
“For that reason, I think theatre will ultimately survive this crisis because it provides something unique and there are just too many people who love theatre to let it die. This is the first step back and we are hoping that as many people as possible will buy tickets and support us.”
:: No Touching Theatre runs from September 16-18 in the Accidental Theatre, Belfast, and is also being live streamed. Tickets costing £10-£12 can be purchased at accidentaltheatre.co.uk/box-office/no-touching-theatre
