Ba dia chogaidh agus sléachta a bhí i Nobodaddy i ndán le William Blake ach tá tusa tar éis é seo a iompú ar a cheann agus Nobodaddy mar dhia na síochana a chothú as?
"I was interested in William Blake for a long time, and I stumbled across this word, Nobodaddy, in one of his notebook poems. And then I found a few more finished poems in which he refers to Nobodaddy and I liked the name and I was interested in this, that he has given life to this God-like force; I think the quote is about him liking hanging and slaughtering, drawing and quartering!"
"Cuireann sé sin ag smaoineamh tú mar Éireannach agus an stair, an chineáltacht againn. Bhí Blake ag scríobh fé bunaíocht Shasana, is dócha, ríthe agus banríona, Parliament nó Cromwell agus a shinsear agus na daoine a lean é."
"And the use of brutality as a force to control people's passions, people's lives. Blake talked about him being a God of vengeance as well. You know, that kind of Old Testament idea that if you take my tooth I'll take your tooth."
"'Má mharaíonn tú mo mhac, maróidh mé do mhacsa. Leanann an iompair súile-ar-son-súil sin ar aghaidh go deo. Is maith liomsa an deis a thapú freagra a thabhairt air sin. I suppose the show should be called ‘Not Nobodaddy’ in some ways!"
Or Somebodaddy?
"Yeah! Nobodaddy comes from, ‘Old Daddy Nobody’ or ‘Nobody's Daddy’. So the idea that this character had no capacity as a paternal figure and, when we depict this God as a father, 'God the father', that in some way Blake is being satirical in that, like 'what sort of a father could this sort of a deity be if it's preoccupation was dealing out vengeance upon people, who are, you know, deserving of brutality or death?'"
"Tá sé fíor-spéisiúil; ag fás aníos in Éirinn – rugadh mise i 1969 – agus de réir a chéile, sa saol, tosnaíonn tú ag cuimhneamh ar mar a chuimhníonn tú ar rudaí. Agus bhí iontas orm gur thuigeas go gcreidim i rudaí! Go raibh córas creidiúna agam nárbh liomsa, ach go háirithe, é, agus go rabhas ag feidhmiú tríd ar go leor bealaí le linn mo shaoil."
Do you mean unquestioningly?
"No, not unquestioningly, more unconsciously. So part of the reason that moving to the (Kerry) Gaeltacht, one of the fantastic transformations of my life, living as far away as I could from Dublin or London, in a sense, was that I've kind of fixed that part of my consciousness and that I don't feel like I'm operating necessarily from some of these ideas that that I learned about in school or were handed to me by. In some cases by my parents or by priests or by politicians."
Sa chlár faisnéise, The Dance, mar gheall ar an saothar agat, MÁM, bhí radharc an chuileog ag lucht féachana ar do chur chuige agus an tor orgánach a shonraítear; arbh é an modh céanna a bhí in úsáid do Nobodaddy?
"Well, I'm right in the middle of it now like, i lár na stoirme. So yes is the answer. And it all looks very fun and cuddly in the documentary but the reality of it is that I go to bed at night a good amount of uncertainty about where this thing is going to land."
Rud a fhuasclaíonn agus a scanraíonn tú araon?
"Is fuascailt é ach tá sé de dhíth, freisin. Nílim ag rá gur gá go mbeadh an dualgas seo ar gach aon ealaíontóir, ach caithfidh eilimint éigin a bheith ann géilleadh do fórsaí nach bhfuil smacht agat ortha."
"Like, I know how to make shows, I've made tons of them and I've been nominated and I've won many awards, but I don't really have any interest in making the same one again that I've made before - one has to be willing to be taken by an idea or taken by someone else's energy or be taken by the the way the light is in the room on a particular day."
"Agus fillean sé seo siar go Nobodaddy – nílim ró-thógtha le smacht a bheith agam ar na comrádaithe sa seomra liom, nó an iomarca smachta a bheith agam. Is deise liom ligean do rudaí iad féin a chruthú dá réir."
You subtitled Nobodaddy, 'Tríd an bPoll gan Bun', which is like allowing yourself to drop into the abyss and see what rocks you bounce off or something?
"Exactly. And that's ‘through the bottomless pit’ – it’s probably from the Old Testament, but there's some really interesting stuff I've been thinking about like Milton, when he wrote Paradise Lost. I read this interesting piece that kind of claims that Milton, when he was describing the Devils in Paradise Lost, and describing Pandemonium or Lucifer, that he was describing the Irish. Milton was Minister of Foreign Tongues for that early parliamentarian government and he was writing in response to the massacre that happened in Portadown that led to the 90 year or 100 year war that caused, I think, the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people."
"Ach thaitin an smaoineamh liom go raibh sé ag cur síos ar na hÉireannaigh mar dhiabhail agus gur tháinig Blake os cionn céad bliain ina dhiaidh sin a dúirt gurbh fhile iontach é Milton, ach nuair a scríobh sé fé aingil, go raibh sé sách leamh. Ach nuair a scríobh sé fé dhiabhail go raibh sé iomlán spreagtha."
"That’s just connecting back to your idea that in order to be an artist, you have to be able or willing to go into some sort of a hell to meet unpleasant aspects of reality and yourself, in order to fully then express one's capacity for lighter and more joyful sides of yourself. So like it all feels quite tidy in my consciousness."
Well if it makes sense for you and you know, then we just get to sit and enjoy watching and the end product. To go back to MÁM, you had lots of musicians but Cormac Begley seemed to be the fulcrum kind of like the centre-point. Is Sam Amidon similar this time around? You have 9 dancers and six musicians, but Sam seems to be, perhaps similar to Cormac’s role, a centre point around which the rest of the music comes?
"Ar roinnt bhealaí, is ea, ach ar shlite áirithe is forbairt é seo nó freagra ar an mbealach oibre a bhí ann le Cormac. Bhí beirt atá sa ghrúpa le Sam ag seint i MÁM; Maya Kadish ar an veidhlín agus Romain Bly a chasann corn Francach, trumpa agus drumaí. Tagann Sam ó thraidisiúin cheol na ndaoine ach tá sé ana-chleachtaithe ar comhoibriú, má éisteann tú leis na halbaim aige, sheinn sé le Bill Frisell, mar shampla. Tig leis jazzing-up a dhéanamh, tuigeann sé chuile rud fén gceol comhaimseartha – is ciclipéid cheoil agus cosa faoi atá ann."
For an example of the kind of experience a Teaċ Daṁsa show gives, watch the trailer for the previous production, MÁM.
"So he's a very practised collaborator, whereas with Cormac, not that it was combatative, but it was more like how much is this stuff are you willing to allow in the room? Cormac had this huge responsibility, he felt, to the tradition, and he was honouring, you know, his own tradition."
"Whereas with Sam that feels like a much easier threshold, you know, and that he's much more kind of 'solúbtha' - flexible and bendy."
"Mar sin sa seó seo bogann an cheol in go leor áiteanna éagsúla níos éasca. Bé cumhacht MÁM an teannas, bhraitheas, idir Cormac agus stargaze ensemble. Sin a chruthaigh é ach is gaol difriúil atá sa cheann seo."
Your generosity in terming the creation of Nobodaddy as ‘Michael Keegan-Dolan and the Nobodaddy Company’ points to the fact that it's not just Michael Keegan-Dolan, whose brand is established and recognised and award-winning and all the rest of it, but that the rest of the cast get that recognition – there are artists (the Boss, Neil Young etc) for whom, regardless of collaborators or contributors, it's just them?
"I think it's important to recognise the truth of the situation. The way we describe how I like to work - allowing for the unknown to have it’s place and allowing for other energies in the room than mine - many of the collaborators involvements are more sophisticated and more interesting to mine anyway."
"But if they're truthfully allowing them to have a place then you have to credit that. You have to say that that's what's happening, and I think it would be disingenuous - and a little bit stupid - of me to pretend that that wasn't happening. Now, I'm probably the one who’s getting the least sleep. Right, I AM the one who's getting the least sleep, I'm the one whose feeling the pressure...but it’s not the first time, obviously I’m practiced at that but the people I’ve gathered here, they’re giving it a lot, so we need to say that."
This production will officially open DTF 2024 on 26th September at O'Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College. Nobodaddy will preview on 25 September and run 26-28 Sept, 30 Sept-5 Oct, 7:30pm.
Talking Theatre: 3 Oct, post-show with Michael Keegan-Dolan.
Tuilleadh eolais ag Teaċ Daṁsa agus DTF.
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