The New Electric Ballroom

07-31 Mar ,

Theatre

There's something very fishy going on at Griffin

First published on 14 Sep 2010. Updated on 1 Apr 2012.

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This March, Griffin Independent and Siren Theatre Company take on Enda Walsh’s New Electric Ballroom, a play about isolation, longing, broken hearts and fish.

According to Justin Smith, who plays the fishmonger Patsy in this story of stagnancy, New Electric Ballroom is iconic Irish storytelling. “It’s really funny, really sad and really stupid at times, but ultimately very human and heartfelt.”

The play’s premise is pretty bleak. Walsh wrote New Electric Ballroom after hearing about a house of secluded sisters who starved themselves to death in hopes that their souls would float lightly to heaven. In New Electric Ballroom Smith hears echoes of Grey Gardens,a documentary made in the 70s about Jackie Onassis’s aunt and cousin living in a decrepit mansion, self-segregated from society. And whilst this may not seem a recipe for laughter, Smith insists it is. “It’s true Irish playwriting,” he says. “It’s really black, but it’s blackly funny.”

It’s this ability of Irish playwrights to make cursing poetic and depression comic that makes their theatre so captivating. Smith, who is working on mastering the “delicious” dialect (with help of vocal coach Natasha McNamara), marvels at the play’s lyrical storytelling.

“[Irish writers] don’t seem to set rules, like: ‘that’s not really appropriate for the world of the play’,” Smith says. “There are moments where you go, wow – you’ve just chucked that in there and it kind of really works. Whereas if you looked at it from the cold light of day you’d just be like, you can’t have that in there because that would just be weird.”

As for rumours that the scent of fish is wafting around the Stables, Smith remains secretive. “I’m certainly pushing for [real fish], but I don’t know. The price of salmon might put that out of the question.”

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Words by Rachel Chant