Following the performance of "Krapp's Last Tape" at Keegan Theatre this Sunday, the Eagle interviewed Eric Lucas, a co-artistic director of the New Island Project and a founding member of Keegan Theatre. The New Island Project is a branch of the Keegan Theatre that emphasizes the support of minimal Irish theater.
The Eagle: What inspired the inception of the New Island Project?
Eric Lucas: Basically, there was a lot of material, Irish as well as others, that we really wanted to do and that wasn't being represented, either around town or that didn't fit schedule-wise in our mainstage season at Keegan. New Island, like a second stage or experimental blackbox, gave us the opportunity to play with edgier works in a fashion I love - basically to rip back everything, peel away to the raw truth.
EAG: Where did the desire to create the New Island Project come from?
EL: It springs from a respect for the writing, to let the word be enough, the actor be enough. It's also the desire to seek out work that has a certain fire and purity that lends itself to the minimalist style we are striving to achieve.
EAG: "Krapp's Last Tape" fits perfectly with your description. But are there enough plays like "Krapp's Last Tape" for you to continue to produce different works?
EL: Right now there is so much new Irish theater out there it would take at least a decade to produce what we would find stage-worthy for our purposes. But we are not averse - because we are an experimental wing of Keegan - to eventually reinventing ourselves to include more than just Irish writers.
EAG: How do you see the plays of the New Island Project contributing both to Keegan Theatre and to the theater-going public?
EL: Our overall contribution, both to the company and the public, is to provide a new experience whether that is through the production of an unknown playwright to America, or to provide a new interpretation to a well-known work. For instance we did a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" without all the normal trappings that have come to be associated with it and let the story and characters carry the day. We feel very strongly in the value of storytelling that forces people to listen and participate in what they are seeing.
EAG: What is "Krapp's Last Tape" about to you? What drew you to it?
EL: It's a masterpiece. Beckett is still ahead of his time and he's been dead for 20 years. He captures the human condition with words and between words. He crystallizes our humanity and is able to do it in an hour.
You can reach this staff writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
