BWW Features: Meet the New Abbey Theatre Directors

It was announced yesterday that a double act would replace Fiach Mac Conghail as artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Ireland's National Theatre.

Neil Murray and Graham McLaren, both of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS), will commence as directors designate on 1 July 2016, working alongside Mac Conghail until December 2016 to ensure a smooth transition. They will be responsible for programming from January 1 2017.

From his 12 years in the role, Mac Conghail will be remembered for successfully stabilising the theatre after it sustained €2.5m in debt at the end of the previous administration under artistic director Ben Barnes and managing director Brian Jackson. Under Mac Conghail's direction, the Abbey fostered new plays by Mark O'Rowe and Marina Carr, and ushered in a new generation of directors such as Annabelle Comyn, Selina Cartmell and Wayne Jordan to reenergise classics by Shaw, Shakespeare and O'Casey (albeit, a programme similar to that at the theatre in the 1970s).

Comparatively, the NTS has the benefit of not repeating such cycles due to its still young existence. Founded in 2006, it has quickly flourished into a major international touring company, with transfers of its work to the West End and Broadway. Murray has been key to overlooking that success, having served as executive producer to the company since its inception, and before that working for six years as director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. McLaren, the director and designer of the celebrated Theatre Babel and later Scotland's Perth Rep, came on board as associate director with the NTS in 2010.

With both artists coming from a non-venue-based theatre, it makes sense that they wish to challenge the structural and geographical limitations of the Abbey, saying in their statement: "We believe in the concept of a national theatre that reaches all of the country". An establishing of projects to be made around the country sounds promising, as is the emphasis on touring. With Murray's expertise, who knows where the Abbey could end up touring? And what of the visual direction that might be led by McLaren, whose designs for Theatre Babel were praised for being stylish and evocative?

Five Productions Produced by Neil Murray

1. Black Watch (2006)

Gregory Burke's explosive drama, based on interviews with the Black Watch regiment of the British Army, offered the NTS a look at the Iraq War from the perspective of Scotland's soldiers. Directed by John Tiffany, it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2006 before touring across Scotland and playing St. Ann's Warehouse in New York in 2007, with tours across Australia, the UK and US continuing until 2013.

1. The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (2011)

David Greig's musical play about an uptight academic stranded in the Scottish borderlands is one of the NTS's most popular productions. Directed by Wils Wilson to play immersive environs such as town halls and hotel bars, Prudencia Hart toured the UK and US from 2011 to 2014.

1. Macbeth (2012)

Alan Cumming's one-man Macbeth was set in a psychiatric unit, focusing on a solitary patient channeling the Shakespearean tragedy. This radical reimagining, directed by Andrew Goldberg and John Tiffany, premiered at the Tramway in Glasgow before transferring to the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. It was presented on Broadway the following year by producer Ken Davenport.

4. Let the Right One In (2013)

According to Murray, Jack Thorne's stage adaptation of John Ajvide's novel and film brought Dundee Rep's average audience age down by 15 to 20 years because of its subject matter: a love story involving a vampire. Familiar tropes spilled fresh blood in this raved production, directed by Steven Hoggett and John Tiffany, which toured to the West End and St Ann's Warehouse in 2014.

5. The James Plays (2014)

An epic co-production between the NTS, the National Theatre of Great Britain and the Edinburgh International Festival, this trilogy by Rona Munro looked at the three Stewart kings who ruled Scotland in the 15th century. It also marked the triumphant debut of NTS director Laurie Sansom. Last month it was announced that the cycle will tour the UK and internationally in 2016.

Five Productions Directed by Graham McLaren

1. Oedipus/Electra/Medea (2000)

Early in his career, McLaren staged for Theatre Babel a trilogy of Greek plays adapted by Scottish writers (Oedipus by David Greig, Electra by Tom McGrath and Medea by Liz Lochhead), all performed in one day in the Epic Theatre style. It would mark him as an expert on classical theatre.

1. The Importance of Being Earnest (2012)

Twelve years on and McLaren still shows signs of experimentation with a staging of The Importance of Being Earnest for Belfast's Lyric Theatre, in which the roles of Lady Bracknell and Miss Prism are played my male actors. Furthermore, the playing of the action in an unusually naturalistic style exposed an Earnest of surfaces, with unrealised desires glimpsed underneath superficial posturing.

1. Great Expectations (2012)

Theatre producers Beckman Unicorn handed Jo Clifford's adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel to McLaren, who staged it for a national tour. In 2013, it opened in London's Vaudeville Theatre, a West End debut for both Dickens's novel and McLaren.

1. In Times of Strife (2013)

As associate director of the NTS, McLaren develops In Time O' Strife: a drama written by John Corrie in 1926 to raise funds for striking miners during the General Strike. Having gutted the script to reorder scenes and include some of Corrie's poems, this tale about a mining community feeling the strain of a seven month lockout now stood at a meeting point of music, dance and drama, an exhilarating and riotous revival.

1. Blabbermouth (2014)

A curated event for the NTS on the eve of Scotland's independence referendum, Blabbermouth was a 12-hour celebration of Scottish music and spoken word. The sentiment of McLaren's staging was to demonstrate that no matter how the country would vote, Scotland had proven its ability to flourish.

Photo: Ros Kavanagh

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