Actor and playwright Eugene O’Hare brings the premiere of The Dry House to Marylebone Theatre from 31st March to 6th May 2023.
The ensemble cast includes Derry Girls’ fan-favourite Aunt Sarah, Kathy Kiera Clarke, who plays the role of Claire. Award-winning stage and screen actress Mairead McKinley takes on the role of Claire’s sister Chrissy. Critically-acclaimed actress Carla Langley is Chrissy’s daughter Heather.
Opening at Marylebone Theatre, London’s newest cross-arts venue, The Dry House is a darkly comic redemptive play about love, loss and the possibility of hope after years of self-destruction.
You’re bringing The Dry House to Marylebone Theatre, what can you tell us about the play?
It’s set in 2023 in a border town in Ireland, and it features a family of women in a very troublesome situation. A plan is offered to get out of trouble and to make living easier, but it takes a lot of guts, a lot of love and a lot of honesty if that plan stands a chance of succeeding. From the moment the lights come up, an audience is invited to join these women to walk a very honest and dramatic path.
What inspired you to write it?
It’s hard to say. If anything, it’s subconscious. Sometimes worlds evolve themselves somewhere in the head and eventually I have to stop putting it off and simply get the thing down on paper. Most writing happens away from the desk. I don’t interrogate too much how it came about or where it came from. I don’t want to demystify anything about it for myself.
You’re also directing, what’s the biggest challenge in directing your own writing?
I’m good at creating distance between the two roles. I did it fairly recently with a double bill of shorter work in Summer of 2021 to help reopen the Omnibus Theatre post-lockdown. It’s about encouraging the actors not to defer to the text too much just because the writer is in the room.
We have to think of the writer at that point as a quiet observer. It’s now about creating a room for great actors to feel increasingly free with their instincts – then we start to pin it all down with the most interesting decisions to best serve the play. What’s important is that the script is as lean and precise before rehearsals as possible so that we can leave the writer in the corner.
On short rehearsal periods, I think actors have enough to do than to endure too many rewrites and have their rehearsal room become these extended workshop spaces. I would rather lines were re-written because a great actor’s instinct indicated there was a better version of it to the one on the page. But I say all this strictly as a director of my own writing. I don’t have any interest in directing work by other writers. For other peoples’ plays I am most happy in rehearsal as an actor.
Tell us a little about the cast and what you’re enjoying about working with them?
I know Kathy Kiera Clarke, Mairead McKinley and Carla Langley’s work well. I have worked as an actor with both Mairead and Carla at the National and at the Royal Court respectively. Three fierce, brave and exciting actors all from pretty much the same part of the world where The Dry House is set. I love watching good actors work when they feel free to follow their instincts. This fine trio is no exception.
What are you looking forward to most about working at Marylebone Theatre?
Seeing the many talents of this extraordinary team come together in the production. From production and stage management to the builders, designers and actors, we haven’t cut any corners. What I value most on a job, whether as an actor or writer/director, is the talent of the people around me. Good directing, it seems to me, is really harnessing and co-ordinating the talents and imaginations of the wider team.
I’ve worked as an actor with some terrific theatre directors like the late Howard Davies and with Indhu Rubasingham and Phillip Breen. What I noticed in their rooms was not some grand visionary auteur standing at the centre. They were co-ordinating the talents of the company and encouraging the freedom of actors to make bold and surprising choices as early in the rehearsal room as possible.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see The Dry House?
If you like serious quality drama featuring nuanced and fearless performances, book your seat.
