‘Demanding Druid’ bring out best in new writer

Making his debut as a playwright doesn’t exactly sound like a piece of cake for Brian Martin, but the actor and writer wouldn’t have it any other way. Brian’s first play, Be Infants in Evil, will premiere during this year’s Arts Festival, in a Druid Theatre production and while the process has been demanding, it’s brilliant, according to the Dubliner.

“Druid push you and push you and push you to get the best stuff out of you and I am a better writer now because of that,” he says Be Infants in Evil, which was staged as a rehearsed reading by Druid during last year’s Arts Festival was subsequently commissioned by the company for a full production. This is being directed by Oonagh Murphy, another new face at Druid and, like Brian, a graduate of Drama Studies from Trinity College.

It’s a play that deals with big issues, including paedophilia, religion and abortion but it does so in a way that is darkly comic and savage. So no surprise then when Brian lists the playwrights he admires, he mentions Enda Walsh and Martin McDonagh as well as the edgy English writer Philip Ridley.

“I love being taken for a ride in the audience and hate when I know where something is going. I love the madness and unpredictability of it.” says Brian, who also studied English Literature at Trinity.

Both McDonagh and Walsh, whose plays fit the ‘mad and unpredictable’ criteria, have enjoyed considerable success with Druid and Brian can see why.