With two original plays on stage at the Abbey Theatre in four months, Dylan Coburn Gray is a name Dublin theatre-goers are fast growing accustomed to. A Trinity graduate, spoken-word artist and acclaimed playwright, he has made his early years as a Dublin-based artist count, and has, moreover, shown that today it is possible to do so.
Speaking to The University Times, Coburn Gray confesses: “I really hope I’m at the palatable male, mostly white, woman-partner end of the new writing wedge. I think a lot of writers could go a lot further a lot sooner given the right support and opportunities.”
When Coburn Gray’s play, Citysong, was received with rave reviews, the playwright quickly gained notoriety in Dublin’s thriving theatre scene. The play tracks a day in the life of one family, and comments vividly on how Dublin has changed in recent years. Reflecting on Citysong, his mainstage debut at the Abbey and later London’s Soho Theatre, Coburn Gray speaks with authorial consciousness: “Margaret Perry rightly pointed out that Citysong is a type of writing often coded female and denigrated for its ‘failures’ of craft as such, but as a dude I get afforded the presumption of deliberateness. I’d love if Citysong’s relative success made some gatekeepers more open to work by people who aren’t me or even like me.”
In a sociopolitical climate where no meal is served without a hearty side of ethics, it seems Coburn Gray has come to prominence at just the right moment.
He gives credit for this apparently feminine tone to his parents’ creative influence: “I feel like I have my dad’s nerdy brain but my mam’s artistic priorities.” Over time, the familial became professional, with his mother, Veronica Coburn, directing his play Ask Too Much of Me for this year’s National Youth Theatre production.
Why live if we die? Why believe in God if there’s pain? Why campaign if all evidence says Ireland is an irredeemable woman-hating shithole?
The production itself, while highly praised for its quality, style and talent, received criticism for its heavily politicised nature in contrast with its fresh-faced cast of youths. To this, Coburn Gray responds: “Young people know lots. They think a lot. They relish a conversation pitched beyond their current knowledge that their adult intelligence equips them to eventually grasp with the appropriate support. You always want to take a group on a journey.”
The play itself is set in the run-up to the 2018 referendum to repeal the eighth amendment. The plot follows an overflowing squad of unabashedly current and colourful characters attempting to navigate themselves, their concomitant baggage, society and the city. For Coburn Gray, “the brief was to tackle faith, and the eighth referendum was a really consequential collision between religious and political faiths. Faith for me is about living with the knowledge of knowledge’s limits: why live if we die? Why believe in God if there’s pain? Why campaign if all evidence says Ireland is an irredeemable woman-hating shithole?”.
In his pursuit, Coburn Gray became conscious of avoiding the story of the repeal movement itself, which he says, “isn’t mine to tell”. This is why the play is “about people in the margins”, he explains.
A charming circumstance of the production is that both Coburn Gray and his mother took part in the National Youth Theatre as youths, in 2009 and 1984 respectively. Inevitably, the difficult but necessary question arises: 2009 or 2019, if he had to choose a favourite? “Probably 2019”, Coburn Gray responds. “NYT as a young person is the joy of getting to be eight different versions of yourself, seven of which you later discard. NYT as the playwright is the joy of giving that to someone else by doing the thing the enduring version of yourself loves doing most.”
In terms of Youth Theatre Ireland, the overarching association responsible for the National Youth Theatre and youth theatre nationally, Coburn Gray says he “respects them more than ever”. “I’ve never had such good dialogue about ethics, care and mediating different experiences in the rehearsal room from a partner organisation”, he says.
The playwright’s next step is a tour of China with MALAPROP theatre, followed by the development of a new show, Hothouse, and working on what he refers to as “a big jolly play about the Nuremberg trials”. It looks like the curtain won’t be coming down on Coburn Gray any time soon.
