Theatre Upstairs shuts doors at Lanigan’s: A look back on the past nine years

Theatre Upstairs announced their closure on Thursday night.

As social media tributes poured in last Thursday for the late Pat Laffan, you might have missed a notice from Karl Shiels and Laura Honan, artistic director and creative director of Theatre Upstairs, announcing that the theatre is shutting its doors at Lanigan’s pub. 

“This chapter of Theatre Upstairs has ended,” they wrote on the theatre’s Facebook page, with no indication of relocating to a different venue. 

Founded in 2010 by Shiels, Paul Walker and Andy Cummins, Theatre Upstairs first made its home at the Plough bar on Lower Abbey Street. Even its first production, Walker’s monologue play Decked, had the practical economy, shades of tragedy and scabrous detail reminiscent of Mark O’Rowe - echoes which would be heard in several Theatre Upstairs productions throughout the years. 

Then three weeks after the theatre opened, an announcement came that the Plough was shutting down. It seemed to be over before it even begun.

But in 2012 Theatre Upstairs reopened at Lanigan’s pub on Eden Quay. This unfunded venue in an era of austerity, committed to new writing while its neighbour - the Abbey Theatre - delivered risk-adverse programmes, soon seemed to be fulfilling the remit of the Peacock Theatre, presenting new work by playwrights like Jimmy Murphy and Gary Duggan. 

It has since proven to be a seedbed for nourishing new talent. Here are some lasting contributions it has given to Irish theatre. 

The theatre photography of Ste Murray 

Many plays may have been produced on a shoestring but Murray’s eye-catching posters - positioned outside the theatre, and forming an attractive gallery in the theatre’s foyer - gave them an epic dimension. For instance: his design for Slippers, Jeda de Brí and Finnbarr Doyle’s subtle comedy about a hoarding mother, suggested the depth and pastoralism of a folk album. (Years later I still don’t know what the pear means but it’s still stayed with me). Last year Murray did fetching poster design for Rough Magic’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Broken Promise Land

Broken Promise Land. Photo: Matthew Smyth

This monologue written and performed by Mirjana Rendulic was one of the most original plays seen here. A Croatian woman escapes the Yugoslav wars and becomes a strip-club performer, all the while dreaming of the campus life seen in Beverly Hills 90210. After Magic Mike this could have been expected to balance in-depth storytelling with titillating spectacle, but director Aoife Spillane-Hinks’s restrained production stationed Rendulic at an unglamorous bedsit. The play admits the illusions of power that strip-club life can bring, but they can be comforting illusions nonetheless. 

Panned 

Panned. Photo: Ste Murray

A breakout not only for playwright Caitríona Daly but also actor Ste Murray, director Eoghan Carrick and designer Naomi Faughnan - all of whom have done great work since. A young man is seen heading to a costume party dressed as Peter Pan, with all the suggestiveness of struggling to grow up. Its innovation is that it asks us to see for this frustrated college graduate - stuck in a dead-end job, losing friends through emigration, with declining mental health - it isn’t for want of trying. 

From Eden

From Eden.

Who knew Stephen Jones, an actor known for broad multiple-role comedies, could write a play as stealthy and intimate as this? When two strangers (Jones and the whip-smart Seana Kerslake) find themselves locked inside a bathroom during a New Year’s Eve party, they allow their hidden struggles to come to the surface. It launched Jones’ playwriting career, which has recently given us the compassionate drama Northern Lights. 

Revolver

Revolver.

Here’s another one that introduced a compelling new voice. Seanan McDonnell’s play about two people on a first date had a surprise twist: through use of a magical website, the couple can repeatedly restart their date and edit as they go along. Questioning whether to bare their souls or embellish their answers, this has the supernatural touches, word-games and profound theories that have marked McDonnell plays since, including End. Of. and So Where Do We Begin?.