Lauded Star of Sea returns for new run

One of Galway’s most innovative companies, Moonfish Theatre, wowed audiences during last year’s Arts Festival with their adaptation of Joseph O’Connor’s hit novel, Star of the Sea.

The Moonfish co-production with An Taibhdhearc Theatre was a total sell-out, but its limited run left many punters disappointed as tickets were like gold dust.

There’ll be no more disappointment, however, as Moonfish and An Taibhdhearc have revived the bilingual, multi-media play for an Irish tour which sees it return to An Taibhdhearc this week.

The story, set on the Famine ship, Star of the Sea, and telling the stories of its passengers and how they ended up on this voyage to America, is one that intrigued sisters Mairéad and Ionia Ní Chróinín of Moonfish since they first read the book.

“There are so many viewpoints in the novel and it was so well constructed that you feel for everyone,” observes Ionia, when we meet in the Meyrick Hotel during week two of a three-week rehearsal period for the revival. “The characters don’t have to be perfect for you to care about them – even the worst of them.”

She loves the way the book explored the notion of how much one person could survive before their humanity was knocked out of them – and in a way that made the reader understand, if not condone, their actions.

Moonfish were thrilled at the response of Galway audiences last year, and are looking forward to taking Star of the Sea on the road, after this new rehearsal period.

“There were a few things we wanted to restructure and refine, so to have these three weeks on top of the original four is a luxury,” Ionia says.

Star of the Sea features in this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival’s programme and will also visit nine other venues nationally as part of the Strollers Touring Network. The Arts Council are also on board for this tour, the biggest ever from Moonfish.

“It’s lovely to be doing it in Galway again because of all the people who didn’t get to see it, and the great reaction and the Taibhdhearc being co-producers,” Ionia reflects. “And it’s nice to bring it outside of Galway too. This is a story for the whole island. It resonates with everyone, everywhere.”

Galway was a natural starting point for it. Star of the Sea is set in Connemara and, as Ionia points out, Galway people hear Irish spoken more regularly than people elsewhere in the country do.

“So the bilingual aspect of it will be interesting outside of Galway.”

With that in mind, Moonfish are running a ‘sister tour’ alongside the main play to create ‘Learner Irish venues’.

They are seeking two members of staff in each venue who will take on the challenge of learning Irish. As part of this, audiences can get information from staff as to what Irish classes are already running locally.

“It’s about availing of the structure that’s already there,” says Ionia. “So many people came up to us after the Galway run and said ‘I’ve more Irish than I thought’.”

Moonfish have always had an innovative and inclusive attitude to presenting work in the Irish language. Their groundbreaking show, Pinocchio, created a method of working that was highly visual and that allowed audiences with limited or no Irish to understand what was happening on stage, without dumbing down the language.

“With Star of the Sea, Irish is intrinsic to the story,” says Ionia, explaining that it’s the first language for some of the characters.  “And the Famine had such a devastating effect on the language, which is an undercurrent to the play.”

Moonfish were interested to see how people would react to their presentation of Irish in the play, given the baggage that’s attached to it, thanks mostly to an education system that doesn’t work. They were pleasantly surprised.

“We worked hard on it and were proud of it, so it’s gratifying to be bringing it back,” says Ionia. “You always find new things in it. You can investigate characters more and the relationships between the characters.”

Moonfish take an unusual approach to drama in that there’s no one director. Instead, the small group of performers work collaboratively from start to finish. Projects, such as this one, are developed over a long period, but not constantly, which means actors also work elsewhere.

Direction is done informally in a conversational manner, and while this takes longer than having one person in charge, it works.

Early on, the group worked with a London puppeteer about how to represent the play’s Famine characters.

“This was too essential and too grave for us to act out,” says Ionia of these roles, explaining that puppets could “portray the harrowing nature of the Famine so much better”.

They also had music workshops with local group Tradiohead, as central character Pius Mulvey is a balladeer and used his writing skills to escape Connemara, something which came back to haunt him.

Movement and light are also vital to the piece, which is staged unconventionally. Ionia’s sister Mairéad, who is one of the musicians and is involved in the technical aspect of the production, does so from the stage. Their other sister Sorcha, a stage manager, usually based abroad, is also working on this production.

The Ní Chróiníns may be central to Moonfish, but this is no family company. The open, collaborative approach is working as the group prepare to take on a residency in Kildare’s Riverbank Theatre where they will work on several immersive theatre projects.

For now the focus is on Star of the Sea which will tour until October 31 after its run at An Taibhdhearc from this Wednesday, September 16, to Saturday, September 19, at 8pm. Tickets €18.50/€15.50 from antaibhdhearc.com, 091-563600