Irish company Brokentalkers to make London debut

Irish theatre company Brokentalkers will make its London debut next month with a show at the Southbank Centre, a move its co-artistic director Feidlim Cannon described as "a huge deal".

Speaking alongside New York-based artist Adrienne Truscott, who won the Edinburgh Comedy Awards Panel Prize in 2013, Cannon discussed the pair’s upcoming Southbank Centre performance of Masterclass.

Set to run in the UK capital from May 9-12, it explores gender, power and ethics in the theatrical canon, and lampoons the conceit of the "great male artist".

For Brokentalkers, it represents a London debut for a company that has staged work in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy and the USA.

Cannon said: "Brokentalkers really began in the UK. We studied at De Montfort University in Leicester, and to be honest it really did shape the work we make today.

"We came from Dublin, where all we have is old male playwrights to study, and we went to the UK and we were introduced to people like Yoko Ono, the Wooster Group and Forced Entertainment. London is a huge deal for us because that is where we learned to make theatre – so we are excited."

The Arts Council Ireland supported company is based in Dublin, and aims to challenge traditional text-based theatre by making devising, dance, film and found materials the thrust of its work.

Masterclass sees Brokentalkers collaborate with Truscott to uncover what the team call "some difficult truths about power and patriarchy", in a production that won the Scotsman’s Fringe First Award in 2022. 

Truscott appears as a satirical portrayal of a Hemingway-inspired male playwright. She said she hoped the play would draw in a "spicy diversity" of audience, from "young, queer, experimental" theatregoers to "the defenders" of the status quo.

Cannon said he hoped to get a "cohort" of his male friends to see the show, to ask questions of what it is to be a man in an unequal world.

He said: "What does it mean to be an actual ally? Is it good enough to say that I am on the side of the good guys? Have I done the work, have I read the books, have I just retweeted something because it is cool to do that? The idea of ally ship and the ’good guy’ is questioned on stage."

Truscott added: "Gender is obviously a very explosive and intriguing issue right now [...] Even when it doesn’t feel like it is on the front pages, it is kind of always there."

But despite the heavy subject matter, both agreed the play was ultimately a funny one, designed to prompt questions of its audience, rather than dictate to them. Truscott said: "You won’t regret having left home and you feel included and not excluded."

Cannon added: "We are creating space for conversation but the space we are creating it in is a fun, playful space."