Mundane meets majestic as John reaches for stars

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Living at the foothills of the Sliabh Aughty mountains outside Loughrea has provided theatre-maker John Rogers with the perfect location in which to create his new show, The Stars in Winter.  It’s a piece in which he explores “the juxtaposition of the mundane and the majestic”.

The mundane refers to the routines of human life, such as going to the shop at night to get a litre of milk. The majestic comes from looking up at the sky en route to the shop and marvelling at being part of such an immense universe.

Given the clarity of the night sky around his rural home, it’s an ideal location for stellar inspiration. Less ideal is the strength of the internet connection, something that will keep John on his toes as he premieres In the Mouth of Fire on Friday, May 29.

This short piece is a prelude to The Stars in Winter, which John is creating for a Galway 2020 project entitled InterAction. The InterAction project is being run in conjunction with Galway Theatre Festival and features artists who engage audiences by combining digital and more traditional practices.

John certainly fits that bill and laughs as he says “I’ve always been a bit of a geek”.

From Leitrim, he studied computer engineering in Sligo and then worked in software, but ultimately his passion for theatre won out and he went on to study at NUIG, graduating with a Masters in Theatre Studies.

“But I never lost the interest in software,” he says.

Like John’s recent work, The Stars in Winter is a one-man show. But it’s not in the style of the traditional Irish solo show in which a performer engages the audience about events that have happened in the past.  John casts conventional narrative aside as he plays with and sometimes discards the tools of traditional theatre, with digital technology being central to his shows.

That interest in digital technology was why John got involved in creating the InterAction project back in 2015 when Galway was drawing up its Bid Book to become European Capital of Culture. InterAction was included in the Bid book and the judges were impressed with the aspirations of the six artists involved.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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