Life

Health Q&A: Jimmy Fay of the Lyric – I miss the collective embrace of an audience towards a live performance

Gail Bell asks experts and people in the public eye what keeps them going. This week: Lyric theatre artistic director Jimmy Fay

Jimmy Fay, artistic director of the Lyric theatre in Belfast
Jimmy Fay, artistic director of the Lyric theatre in Belfast Jimmy Fay, artistic director of the Lyric theatre in Belfast
Health Q&A: Jimmy Fay of the Lyric – I miss the collective embrace of an audience towards a live performance
Health Q&A: Jimmy Fay of the Lyric – I miss the collective embrace of an audience towards a live performance

Jimmy Fay – I’ve nothing against bars but theatre is my church

1

Up and at it – what is your new morning routine? How has it changed?

Before lockdown, I had a perfect routine: I would walk my son to his school bus 20 minutes away with our dog and then continue for another 40 minutes before leaving the dog at home and walking on to work. Now I try to stretch a bit in the morning or do half-remembered yoga.

2

What might you eat in a typical working day for...Breakfast?

Eggs and coffee, or, occasionally, muesli with oat-milk. Always coffee – coffee is my fuel.

Lunch?

Sometimes a quick sandwich – chicken and mayo goes down well, with oven-warm crusty baguettes.

Evening meal?

We try to eat ‘light' for the first part of the week – fish, maybe chicken, with veg. We like cooking at home but tried out some great local restaurants, especially during the recent campaign.

3

Have you been able to work from home – if so, how have you found it?

I've enjoyed it. The team in the Lyric are brilliant; we talk every day as a collective at 10am and work out routines from there. We've been able to plan and work on a recovery programme and produce an online series – New Speak – mixing comedy, politics and personal stories and music. As the leading producing theatre in Northern Ireland, it was vital that we found some way of employing actors and directors during this crisis. We were also able to co-produce with the BBC a series of short films called Splendid Isolation and we are working on a series of audio recordings of several plays we have under commission.

4

Best/easiest lockdown meal?

In the early days, when you literally thought you would never be able to go out again, everything we ate was delicious – all foraged from the dark corners of the cupboard, including tinned sardines and barley.

5

Weekend treat?

Steak – rib-eye/T-bone – most Saturday nights, with green beans and a nice Rioja or Burgundy.

6

How do you keep physically and mentally fit during lockdown?

I like routines and I like working out problems – quite often, the issues are real-life ones, so it's good to imagine different scenarios in my head first. Then I like to bounce scenarios off key members of my team. I also play chess with my son, when we can.

7

What is your daily outdoor exercise?

Walking the dog for a couple of hours, through Lagan meadows and Belvoir forest and finding new trails.

8

How do you relax?

I don't relax easily; I love work. Talking to my wife, son, family and friends over a drink is relaxing for me. I watched one episode of The Sopranos every evening from when lockdown started. I fully expected 86 episodes later we would have the theatre open again.

9

Teetotal or tipple?

Oh, tipple. I am particularly partial to all types of red wine but occasionally like a good pale ale like Boundary or Heaney – there are great breweries in the north. I also discovered how to make a nice Negroni from watching a Fellini flick.

10

What book are you currently reading?

I am reading a massive biography of Duke Ellington. In fact, I am reading three of them. Duke was very probably the most influential composer of the 20th century and everything about him I find fascinating – his music, obviously, but also the way he ran his band for 50 years, how he faced various setbacks, including racism, and how he forged dynamic partnerships. His ambition was to be a song and dance man; instead, he led one of the great American lives.

11

Best Netflix?

My son, wife and I are going through all the amazing Studio Ghibli movies currently on Netflix. They are astonishing, especially Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away.

12

Most surprising thing you've learned about yourself?

How much I miss people and how much I miss the collective embrace of an audience towards a live performance. It's an essential part of our being and we have missed this about our fellow humans, as well as their laughter and their focus. I've always thought of myself as a solitary person – you kind of have to be as a director; you need to stand back – but I do miss the physical intimacy of what the Lyric theatre provides and for what it stands for: a collective, inclusive and enlightened place in which to be truly alive.

13

On a scale of one to 10, where have your been in relation to cabin fever and where are you now?

The lockdown was essential to save lives, so there's little point giving out about it, but I am in a privileged position: I was in lockdown with people I love and I continue to create productions with my Lyric team and great artists.

14

What are the three things you missed most during a lockdown?

Family, friends and swimming.

15

Where will you go and what will you do when restrictions are fully lifted?

Visit our parents in Dublin.

16

Biggest gripe?

Not being able to open the theatre just yet. The theatre has been compared to wet bars. I've nothing against bars but theatre is my church.

17

Have your priorities in life or perspectives changed?

Something about ‘time' scares me... how fast it passes and how little of it we have with each other. While I've bellowed down phones and hit the keyboard hard while ensconced in the little box-room at home, over the past few months, my wife has transformed our house and back garden.

18

Any new skills or hobbies?

My chess is a little less rusty – but nowhere as good as my son's – and I understand my laptop a whole lot better.

19

What would you like to see change for good when this is all over?

People's tolerance of each other.

20

Has coronavirus changed your attitude towards your own mortality?

I am closer now to 2069 than 1969 (the year I was born). Every time I hear a bell toll, I miss the friends who already have passed and make a promise to stay in touch with those still here and embrace fully every day as it comes.