The Fit-Up Festival is getting into full swing this month as it brings theatre to venues stretching right across West Cork. CAMMY HARLEY spoke to festival director Geoff Gould
THE Fit-Up Theatre Festival has brought professional theatre and cultural vibrancy to West Cork for the past 15 years by staging a variety of high quality performances.
It brings theatre across West Cork: Timoleague, Glengarriff, Kilcrohane, Drimoleague, Heir Island, Whiddy Island, Sherkin Island, Bere Island, and the festival hub in Ballydehob.
When asked is he the mastermind behind the fit-up theatre concept, festival director Geoff Gould says that the fit-ups were always there, but what he has done is regenerate them and give them a different shape by turning them into a festival.
‘What they used to do was go into a place for a week and do three or four shows and then go on to the next place. They were always called fit-ups because they would arrive with a small truck, or tent, and fit it up in a town like Kilcrohane on a Monday, and then do five different shows from Tuesday to Saturday. The fit-up would normally consist of a professional actor who had no work in Dublin or London for the summer, and the whole family would be in the play, husbands, wives, sons, daughters and even some of their friends! What we have done is localise fit-up in Ballydehob, and expand it out from there with more shows.’ said Geoff.
Geoff faced a very stark landscape for theatre when he came back from studying directorship at Lamda in London in 2009. ‘I had no job, it was Celtic Tiger collapse time with nothing happening. My grandfather and mother used to tell me stories about the fit-ups and I thought I have got to do something, so I put a couple of lamps in the back of the car and brought the wonderful Joan Sheehy, a one-woman-show, with me, and we went from there.
‘The first five years were very tough. Our costs were way higher than our income but Cork County Council was very good to us from the get-go. Then the Arts Council came on board and that made it a lot easier. You just couldn’t do it without their help, it would be impossible.’
Geoff Gould, director of the Fit-Up Festival.
Geoff worked with the bank in the 90s but had also done amateur theatre which got him the role as the artistic director at the Everyman Theatre in Cork where he worked for five years before heading to London to train as a theatre director.Community and inclusion are very important to Geoff. A shared experience. He notes that these days in most homes, family members will each be watching something on individual screens.
‘I find that if you can get everyone to go and see something together – and within the community that surrounds them – there is something lovely about the shared experience. The fit-up ticket price of €15 is the smallest in the country and the subsidy we receive is to encourage people to go. For me, it’s about keeping the elitism out of it. We have had people coming to the fit-up who never saw a theatre show and that is the true measure of success.’
Geoff says that rather than people attending a big theatre that is expensive and a bit nerve-wrecking for some, because they think they won’t understand it and because of travel and accommodation logistics – especially for those coming from islands – the fit-ups are a success because the performers are the ones who are the guests in the local halls.
It is difficult to get children’s shows in the rural areas during the summer months as the children’s performers tend to stay in the cities while the schools are on break, but this summer, Geoff has lined up two circus shows, one from Spain and one from Waterford, which are both great pieces of work and which will be available for free.
Little John Nee performing in Nettle Horse, which will be performed in the festival tent in Ballydehob from July 31st to August 3rd.
Getting shows for the adult theatre has a different problem in that it is usually oversubscribed with plenty of choices and the fit-up can only take four shows, which is one a week for a four-week circuit.
‘That’s why I started the tents, there are a lot of young people coming out with lovely new shows and we couldn’t accommodate them. The tent gives them an intimate space where they can bring their show to about 60 to 80 seats. We want young writers to be seen and heard and bring them on to make sure they are still here in 20 years’ time. West Cork audiences are incredibly supportive, which makes it a great platform to launch from. We are also lucky in that we are just before the Edinburgh festival so over the years, lots of shows have warmed up in Ballydehob before going there.’
Geoff says it’s not all just entertainment. ‘Shows can be very entertaining, but we don’t run an entertainment factory and sometimes people can be disappointed because they think it’s comedy, but that’s not theatre. Theatre is whatever the voices are bringing to the table. Things that might make you think “I never looked at it that way before” can create epiphanies and the smallest things can make the biggest difference.
‘Theatre, as a shared experience that makes you think about and discuss things, is a wonderful thing. In our lives we end up talking about the same old stuff, but after a show you could get someone saying they loved it, and another who hated it, and suddenly there is a discussion.’
Katy Mullins and Jenni Nikinmaa performing in The Enchanted Island, which will be performed at Heir Island, Whiddy Island, Sherkin Island, Timoleague and Ballydehob.
Geoff is striving to reach the 25th anniversary. ‘I am not saying it lightly, but without arts officer Ian McDonagh at Cork County Council and Regina O’Shea and Karl Wallace at the Arts Council, we would not be here celebrating the milestones and sharing professional theatre in the hearts of rural communities. This year, Creative Places West Cork Islands has also given us support.’
The festival will run from July 9th to August 4th. For further information visit www.fit-uptheatrefestival.com.
