My Festival Q&A: Kieran Hurley
Q: What were you planning to do at this year’s festival?
A: There were some pretty big plans. Our new company Disaster Plan had premiered its first ever show Move~Gluasad by my partner Julia Taudevin up on the Isle of Lewis in January. It’s a beguiling and haunting and unique show and we were excited to bring it to wider audiences as part of the Made In Scotland programme. My play Mouthpiece was mooted for a homecoming run at the Traverse. I’d been in talks about bringing Heads Up back. So it’s a pretty gutting loss.
Q: What are you doing instead?
A: Lorn Macdonald is directing an online short filmic take on Mouthpiece called Declan – it’s his sort of experimental portrait of one of its two characters. So that’s pretty cool. He is also doing a one-off reading of my play Beats as part of Gary McNair and Francesca Moody’s Shedinburgh Fringe. And a smattering of words from my other big corona cancellation – an adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for NTS – are being used in Hope Dickson Leach’s film Ghost Light. Both Declan and Ghost Light are part of EIF so I’m claiming it as my EIF debut year.
Q: What impact has the lockdown had on you?
A: The work impact has been pretty devastating. Life at home with two small kids has obviously been challenging, though we’re not special in that regard. Julia and I both got Covid-19 right at the start and recovery has taken a very long time. I’ve been pretty knocked flat with fairly debilitating post-Covid fatigue symptoms, all of which has made continuing work really challenging. I’ll be honest with you: it has been pish.
Q: What do you think the future of theatre looks like?
A: Eesh. There’s a lot that’s not inevitable and a lot to be fought for. We’ll have to be inventive and adaptable, while not forgetting what makes theatre matter, which is the particular power of gathered people within a live event.
Q: What do you think the future of the Edinburgh festivals looks like?
A: The particular conditions of the Fringe – 20 punters squeezed into a tiny sweating basement – mean we might not see it as it was again in a hurry. But we all knew that “as it was” was unsustainable and needed to change. I have a complicated relationship with the Fringe, as an Edinburgh boy working in theatre, but fundamentally I love it, I owe a lot to it, and its survival matters to me. I hope as it returns it can do so in a way that is less rooted in exploitative working practices, more accessible to more people from different backgrounds, and with a healthier relationship with its host population. You could apply those hopes to the whole of the arts really.
Q: What’s your favourite memory of the Edinburgh festivals?
A: When I was about 14 my dad, keen to take the chance to introduce me to something Irish, took me to see Howie The Rookie by Mark O’Rowe at the Assembly Rooms. It was absolute filth, and I was hooked. The play remains an influence to this day.
Q: Will the world be a better or a worse place after coronavirus, and why?
A: Of course it’s true that crisis sometimes ushers in great and necessary change – but none of that is inevitable and I think it would be glib amidst sweeping job losses in our industry to casually predict that things will just be better for all of this. There are also people who want to change society for the even worse and they have all the power. Which is what it’s all about. So every good change needs fought for. It’s rolling up the sleeves time.
Q: What’s the most fun you’ve had online?
A: Uhhh… Netflix? I honestly don’t know how to answer the question. So much happens online, it’s how I communicate with friends, watch films, watch telly…
Q: Please recommend a fun thing you can do while social distancing.
A: Meet pals for a very small, modest, responsible picnic.
Q: Please name a favourite piece of music that sums up this year for you.
A: Mountain by Rice Corpse.
Shedinburgh Fringe Festival is hosting a special reading of Beats on 20 August at 7:30pm. Book tickets at http://shedinburgh.com. Declan is at www.traverse.co.uk, 24-30 August. Ghost Light is online now at www.eif.co.uk
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