Julian’s new play shines a light on economics – and humanity

Date Published: 11-Jul-2012

He has previously directed such memorable plays as Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce and Penelope for Druid Theatre. They both won Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival. So too did Trad, a comedy written by Mark Doherty, directed by Mikel, which premiered at the 2005 Galway Arts Festival.

Now Mikel Murfi is back in Galway, directing a new production for the Arts Festival. The Great Goat Bubble, by Julian Gough is a co-production between the Festival and Dublin’s Fishamble Company, which specialises in new plays.

The Great Goat Bubble is a story about the human condition, told in an unusual and gentle way, explains Mikel, who describes the piece as “gorgeously concise and lovely, and very subtle”.

In this short, humorous play, “Julian is able to teach us how world economics work”, says Mikel during a break from rehearsing the show in Druid Theatre.

The Great Goat Bubble has two characters, Somali economist Dr Ibrahim Bihi and young orphan, Jude who meet on the train platform at Ballinasloe in 1986, as a sleepy Ireland dreams of a modern future.

The two men, played by Wil Johnson and Ciaran O’Brien, begin a discussion about the world’s economy, and Dr Bihi tells Jude about a goat enterprise he started in his native land, as he explains how he made his first million. Mikel likens this tale to the biblical parable of the talents told by Jesus, in which people are encouraged to increase their money.

“Bihi is very seductive because he believes so much in this economic model,” explains Mikel, adding that the problem with Bihi’s model – like the failed model of the Western world – is that it requires everybody to be honest.

But, when “a small amount of movers and shakers at the top of every heap decide the worth of people lower down”, honesty doesn’t win out, says Mikel.

And because Jude is like “an idiot savant” he asks questions to Dr Bihi that shine a light on how world economics work. “Jude comes to things from a left-of-field way. His innocence is remarkable,” observes Mikel.

Dr Bihi’s answers are revealing. “The bogus nature of what economists do to us would nearly make you angry, except that it’s couched in a funny play,” says Mikel.

The Great Goat Bubble will have resonances for Irish people, the director feels.

“It’s not aggressive or barracking the audience,” he adds. “It’s a kind of meditative piece that helps you reflect on the truth, and not a major diatribe or a rally against the economists or banks or government.

“The characters are very rounded, but you almost don’t see the humanity arriving. It’s difficult to tell exactly where you get involved in the human stories behind the two guys.”

One man is preaching his theory of economics with a religious zeal; the other is an innocent abroad.

“But the audience realise they are almost like Jude,” says Mikel, pointing to the way the Irish public bought Eircom shares years ago after being advised to by the Government. Then, during the ‘boom years’ people received economic advice from all sides, much of which proved disastrous.

The play highlights the daft way the world economy works, adds Mikel, citing Ireland’s return to the bond markets last Thursday to borrow five million euro.

“That’s all about money that doesn’t exist – it’s theoretical money, he says. “There isn’t a room in Ireland with five billion in it and there never will be. And nobody will ever come looking for it.”

The Great Goat Bubble in its current incarnation was developed from a radio drama which Julian Gough wrote for the BBC. Before that again, he wrote it as a short story which appeared in the Financial Times.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.