Paddy McGrath’s Daughter
Paddy McGrath’s Daughter is a new work for theatre which began as part of Belltable:Connect Commissioning Award 2019, and developed through my time as Belltable Artist in Residence 2020. Now at rehearsal ready draft stage, having undertaken a further development week with actors Ann Blake and Pat McGrath at Belltable Hub in April 2022, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland’s Project Awards (Theatre) 2021, Strand 2-Creation.
The title speaks to how the central persona, Sy, my eldest aunt, is referred to when visiting the home of her Limerick born Father Pa, my maternal Grandfather, meant as an affectionate reclaiming of my Dublin born aunt by her Limerick people, a statement of heritage, simultaneously a pointed justification for her presence. Sy was diagnosed with Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD) in 2016, an intense, rapid degenerative condition rendering her immobile and nonverbal within three years. One of the last things that she said was “The Hunt Museum”, no one can explain why, this inspired my initial artistic impulse. The Hunt Museum Collection provides both a stimulus and a thread though the narrative. Sy was Matriarch, a woman who lived with a disability before she was ever diagnosed with CBD, in charge of her own destiny until the illness completely removed her agency, I intend to make this work focusing on accessibility within the form itself, to create mechanisms through which a broad spectrum of audiences can engage directly with this new work.
In form, this work seeks to interrogate autobiographical work intrinsic to my practice to date, which became embodied through my one woman show 'In My Bed' (2011), and narratively fictionalised and complicated in 'My Son My Son' (2018). 'Paddy McGrath's Daughter' is similarly narratively fictional, while simultaneously rooted and grounded in biography, utilising archival material from Diageo & The Military Archive (dating from 1924), video footage & audio files as a tool to commingle and complicate biography. Within a liminal mise en scene, the live writer's voice fuels the narrative, the deceased father is played by his son, their real and imagined lived experiences connect across time and defined space to become stageable. Thematically concerned with kinship, the nuance of place both physically and as a factor of identity; class and work through the generational labour our family supplied to the now global conglomerate Diageo, and crucially, personal agency within chronic illness.
