Andrea aims to strike gold with human rights drama

Now, the Corofin native, who has worked with local companies Theatrecorp and Druid and with Dublin’s Abbey and Gate, has returned to her old stomping ground with the Swedish play, Witness, which she has directed and will be performing for this year’s Galway Theatre Festival.

The one-woman play, being presented by Andrea’s company, Ór Productions, will appeal to people who are into theatre, people with an interest in human rights and those who are working in therapy or attending as clients, she says.

Witness is set in Sweden after the Yugoslav war and features an Interpreter who translates survivors’ accounts for a therapist as part of a treatment programme. The play examines crimes against humanity and also the personal struggles of those involved in helping the survivors.

“The interpreter becomes too involved with one of the clients,” says Andrea, adding that “this is also a play about listening and what we hear”,

Witness explores the fine line between client and professional but Andrea stresses that while it deals with serious issues, it’s not about war and is a play that “has a lot of laughs”.

There are so many images in the play, and these allow members of the audience to put themselves in the characters’ shoes, she observes.

Andrea, who has a degree in acting from Trinity College, Dublin, performed Witness recently at the Human Rights Centre at NUIG, as part of her attempts to open up a relationship between the arts and human rights.

The role of arts in exploring human rights is something she has long supported through her work.  In 2013, shortly after returning from London where she had lived for six years, Andrea organised a reading of Patricia Burke Brogan’s groundbreaking play Eclipsed about Ireland’s Magdalen laundries. That took place at Druid Theatre on International Women’s Day.  Andrea produced and directed that reading, and also played the character of Brigit while heavily pregnant with her second child.

Now based in Wicklow with her husband and two children, she is currently appearing in Madam de Markievicz on Trial at Dublin’s New Theatre. Written by Ann Matthews who wrote the sell-out show, Lockout, Madame de Markievicz on Trial is a drama about Constance Markievicz exploring an event in Dublin at Easter in 1916 when a policeman was fatally shot. It is set in a courtroom and a prison cell during the autumn of 1917 and the dialogue is largely based on speeches made by Markievicz during this time.

Andrea will go straight from that to the Galway Theatre Festival with Witness, which she is performing with Ór. Andrea is looking forward to exploring the style of play she will stage with her new company.

“It won’t always be heavy,” she says but adds, “Witness was there and it’s wonderful and relevant”.

Witness, written by Swedish playwright Cecilia Parkert and translated by Kevin Haliwell, will be staged at An Taibhdhearc next Monday and Tuesday, May 4 and 5 as part of Galway Theatre Festival. Booking at An Taibhdhearc Box Office, 091-563600 or at www.galwaytheatrefestival.ie.