Tadgh Snodgrass and Patrick O’Leary kick off this year’s debut season with their production What We Have We Hold, which will run at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in week 10. This production is the first of two Michaelmas term productions and will be succeeded by eight shows in Hilary term marking a series of directorial debuts for this year’s Drama and Theatre Studies students.
A project which has been in the works since May 2020, What We Have We Hold is not only O’Leary and Snodgrass’ capstone project for their degrees, but their first full-scale production. The play is adapted from Eimar O’Duffy’s book King Goshawk and the Birds. Initially, the pair “wanted to take Irish writers across the 20th century that had fallen limp and had not been put in the literary canon”, explains Snodgrass. However, upon discovering O’Duffy’s novel, they changed the scope of their project and resolved to adapt it for the theatre.
Some of the high points of the process so far, for Snodgrass who is often the performer, have been the self-reflective element of “being able to look at a production from the other side” and having “a whole view of what’s going on and what it takes to put on something”. He describes O’Duffy’s work as being “a pleasure to work with, easily adaptable and so geniously satirical”. O’Leary emphasises his gratitude at being able to make theatre again: “It brings me so much joy to just be in a rehearsal room with a bunch of people just having fun and making theatre.”
Audiences can expect “a satirical journey into an imagined Ireland”, in Snodgrass’ words, while O’Leary adds that their intention is firmly rooted in “letting people know that there is exciting stuff happening within theatre”. Additionally, O’Leary hopes that audiences will be able to have “some laughs” while attending What We Have We Hold, which combines “a bit of fun with poignant undertones” from O’Duffy’s novel.
The second debut production premiering in Michaelmas term is Jack Shanely and Daniel Hickey’s Potatoland – “a satire on representations of Ireland”. The play features “different scenarios based on recognisable images or events to do with Ireland”, explains Shanley. It creates a response to the stereotypical and iconographic representations of the country seen in a myriad of works such as Wild Mountain Thyme and Riverdance. He acknowledges that the production has “evolved far away from simply mocking these works” and has been synthesised in Potatoland as a series of “original scenes which have been informed by the sort of flamboyant representations of Ireland and Irishness prevalent in popular culture”.
Shanley marks the joys of working with such a talented cast as one of the best parts of the production process. On the other hand, he emphasises the challenges of producing a play while adhering to coronavirus restrictions: “You really have to let the virus and our relevant safety measures occupy a lot of mental real estate, so that anyone who comes to see the show can relax when they’re in the theatre.” Despite this, it is the beauty of “bending over backwards trying to make something look effortless” which makes Potatoland a “great show”.
According to Shanley, “anyone who comes to Potatoland will see something that they recognise”, with a special focus on television culture. This is in line with the “obsession in the 1990s and early 2000s in Ireland with bizarre, but obviously brilliant, puppetry for kids’ TV shows”, which Shanley and Hickey have tried to find a way of representing. The crux of their production is based upon the question of “What ideas from our past will we bring with us as we evolve into a new country?” as Ireland emerges from the pandemic. The pair have aimed to achieve this goal by “incorporating as many of those [pop culture] images or symbols as possible”.
What We Have We Hold runs November 17th and 18th at 7pm and November 19th at 2pm, while Potatoland runs from November 24th-26th, both in the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Tickets for What We Have We Hold are currently available to purchase on the Samuel Beckett Theatre website, but will also be available at the door. For information on tickets for Potatoland follow on their Instagram page, @go.potatoland.
