LIMERICK actress, writer, performer, producer Joanne Ryan has had a cracking couple of years. The success of her autobiographical one-woman show ‘Eggsistentialism’ has taken her to Edinburgh and Cyprus and is now for a week in London’s Arcola Theatre. Sought by this esteemed venue for the end of January, the play will visit The Bush in West London further on.
In Autumn she flies to Melbourne for an Australian tour, part of the triple whammy of awards she earned in Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017. In competition with 4,000 shows she had returned home with The Lustrum Award, the Best Storytelling Bouquet and The Melbourne Fringe Tour Ready Award.
Joanne Ryan is the first Irish theatre maker to present work in Nicosia, Cyprus, invited there to platform in the Buffer Festival, that which unites the divided city.
A month ago, Mayor Sean Lynch threw open the doors of City Hall to honour herself and Ann Blake for their “contribution to the arts and theatre in Limerick”, for representing the best of Limerick and its people on the international stage and “their great awards success”.
She works hard at her craft, Joanne Ryan. Four years ago she was nominated for Best Actress in The Irish Times Theatre Awards for the title role in ‘What Happened Bridgie Cleary’ (Bottom Dog Theatre Co.). The mayoral reception followed a stint in Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Monaghan, the creatives’ hothouse. ‘Eggsistentialism’ and her next show ‘In Two Minds’ are on foot of professional development with the productive Belltable:Connect programme.
If ‘Eggs’ was a winner driven by wit, inventiveness and a formidable honesty, ‘In Two MInds’ and its complex subject matter will be well served. Living with bi polar disorder is theme.
Ryan herself is not but her mother is, diagnosed about five years ago. The two are close. When her mother saw the quality of ‘Eggsistentialism’ she asked the playwright would she do a piece on being bi polar as “she felt she had never seen an accurate portrayal of [the problem] on stage, screen, anywhere. It is a stigmatised and misunderstood condition”.
Apparently there are four main types of the disorder but individual psyches are unique and experience it differently. “We are working together, charting her moods, writing, recording and working on the script”.
Research is intense. She will begin workshops with Limerick Mental Health Association to explore further with people who battle the internal polarities and their cycle.
A reading of this work in progress will take place in Belltable this Friday 12 at 8pm. Ryan is most pleased to be on stage with Ros na Rún’s Bríd Ní Chumhaill, an old pal, playing the two characters of ‘In Two Minds’. Ciarda Tobin will director, John Galvin is behind the audio-visuals and Windings’ Stephen Ryan is on sound design.
“It’s part of First Fortnight Festival which is Ireland’s mental health festival. FFF was Dublin based and now is nationalised and this is their first time in Limerick. I am really proud to be part of it.”
The festival had previously invited her to the screening of a film to do with bi-polar disorder, ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’, as part of the talk panel afterwards. It is important to her that Friday’s 40minute reading will be followed by a shared discussion with the audience.
“I had been reticent in writing about my mother’s condition as hers is my only experience of the illness.”
That changed with the outpouring from those affected by the disorder after ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’ was screened: “There was an overwhelming need in the room to have that space to ask questions, to talk and to be in that environment. I was absolutely convinced then, that there was such a need for a space for people to discuss their experiences”.
‘In The Mind’ is commissioned by Belltable as part of Belltable:Connect.
