An Irish rural portrait of lost potential, inexpression, and female rage
GAMMY is the love child of Andrea Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’, Mark O’Halloran’s ‘Garage’, with a dash of Stephen King’s ‘Misery’. The story is set with all puppy fat, pimples, missing teeth at 31 and working in the same old shop. GAMMY is stuck. GAMMY never grew up. GAMMY got left behind. But today is different, today something is finally going to happen.
Developed at FRINGE LAB with the support of Dublin Fringe Festival. In the words of singer/songwriter David Keenan, ‘It’s the ones who seem destined to get left behind interest me the most.’
Gammy is a portrait of an Irish contemporary rural female, fuelled by unbearable pain and vicious rage. Gammy is a tragicomedy, yet in its essence, it is a sensitive depiction of the impact of abuse and inexpression. Gammy is volatile, hostile when we meet her, she has reached a crisis point.
Written by Kate Finegan, directed by Laura Sheeran, performed by Eimear Keating, produced by Dani Gill House of Pluto, Lighting and Set Design: Zia Bergin Holly. Made with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland Theatre Project Award.
“I am inspired by the vulnerability and real presence of lost potential. I am interested in how inexpression and suppressed trauma can fester in the subconscious and lead to heinous actions.
“Rural Ireland has now become a melting pot of opposing generations, mixed cultures, and sexes. Gammy got left behind. She didn’t get her Leaving, she works in her Mum’s shop. She and her Mum are outcasts, living on the outskirts of town. Gammy is at war with herself, her self-disgust bleeds into her every day, into her relationships and how she sees the world,” explains writer Kate Finegan.
The location illustrates the conflict within Gammy’s inner and outer world. A small town that is growing vs Gammy’s inner turmoil narrowing in the decaying house/shop she lives in.
Gammy has watched everyone grow up, move out, and moved on and she is left here. She is confronted by the abusive and formative triggers of her past each day, which compound her trauma further. But not today, today Gammy is taking action.
GAMMY will open at The Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar on April 11th (3 shows) Tickets €18/€16 are available from www.projectartscentre.ie.