Fishing around for 21 years…

Fishamble Theatre Company celebrates its 21st birthday this year. Since it was set up by a group of college students in the summer of 1988, Fishamble has grown to become of one Ireland’s theatrical treasures, a treasure that produced 108 plays last year alone. The company produces work by Irish and Irish-based writers, and employs around 70 actors, writers and directors on a freelance basis each year.

Jim Culleton, director of Fishamble, says that the main factor considered when the company chooses new pieces is that they be original works. “We work with emerging and established playwrights, but every piece we produce will have its world premiere with us. That’s always been the way with Fishamble.”

When it comes to sourcing plays, Culleton says the company will often “commission a particular writer to write for us, if we feel they are exciting or show potential. Other times, writers will come to us with plays. For example, we’ve been working with Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe for twelve years, and that relationship started when he sent us his first script, From Both Hips.”

Culleton says that the company has always been determined to “engage with and encourage new Irish writing”. The Fishamble New Writing Award, now in its third year, was set up for that very reason. The receiver of the award receives a €1000 euro bursary towards the development of a new script, along with a scholarship place on a Fishamble scriptwriting course. This year’s winner, 20 year-old Grace Dyas, has worked with Dublin Youth Theatre since 2005, and recently set up her own collective, THEATREclub. She won the award for her play, Rough, which premiered at the Absolut Dublin Fringe Festival last September. Dyas says she was ecstatic when she won. “I’ve been writing for years, but the money that came with the award means I have some time to think about my next script. The award is an invaluable resource for any young writer.”

Culleton understands that investing in new plays is a “risky” venture. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, the company makes the most of it. “We always extend the run of a play if it has potential. Forgotten by Pat Kinevan premiered four years ago, and it’s still running. It’s been performed in 40 Irish venues, and we just got back from Iceland with it. Next on the list is New York.”

After 21 years in the business, Culleton knows talent when he sees it. “Fishamble is something that began in my college days, back when I was with the Trinity Players. I met some students from UCD’s drama society at the Irish Student Drama Awards one year, and we got on really well. We decided to set up the company as a summer thing initially, to keep us occupied. At the start we were just producing plays written by people we went to college with.” Sticking to his classmates wasn’t a bad idea, though. Among Culleton’s Trinity contemporaries were playwrights Marina Carr and Gavin Kostick, who have since had huge international success.

Culleton’s next project, both as Fishamble co-founder and as a director in his own right, is a play called Strandline. It opens in the Project Arts Centre this week, and was commissioned for Fishamble about two years ago. “I hadn’t worked with the writer, Abbie Spallon, before, but I’d seen Pumpgirl which was really successful for her and ran in New York and London. We asked her to write for us, and she came up with a few ideas. The idea that eventually became Strandline was the one that really stuck out for us.”

Strandline has a cast of five, and stars Irish actresses Fiona Bell and Cathy Belton. It’s the story of a recently bereaved woman, who suspects her late husband of having had an affair before his death. Culleton describes the play as “very exciting. It’s about lies, truths and which of them is easier to live with.”

Strandline runs until December 5. Tickets can be purchased at the Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar