Loom with a view

It is inspiring to know that theatres like the Abbey and theatre companies such as Fishamble are so committed to nurturing young, new playwrights.

That always was the case with Fishamble but it also seems to have become a guiding principle at the National theatre under its new artistic director Fiach McConghail and literary editor Aideen Howard.
32-year-old Sean McLoughlin isn’t complaining. He has a commission from the Abbey and the first play of his to be staged is being produced by Fishamble, directed by their artistic director Jim Culleton and stars Darren Healy and Mary Murray, the latter of whom won the Best Supporting Actress in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2006. It’s called Noah And The Tower Flower. But how did all this come about?
“I like writing dialogue and I used to write plays as a kid but I gave it up," Sean says, "and it wasn’t until Aodhan Madden, an award winning playwright, picked up my work and said it was ‘astonishing’ and I should be doing it professionally. He was very encouraging. And Jimmy Fay, who's with Bedrock theatre company, rang me about two years ago after I gave them my first play, Martin In The Fields, and he told me to send it to the Abbey and I got a reading and a commission, which was pretty terrific, to write another play. Provisionally, it’s called Trumpet And English Horn. But while it was with the Abbey, I wrote Noah And The Tower Flower, on a whim, purely for my entertainment. And that was the beauty of it, because there wasn’t any pressure on me, there was no deadline. I just went away and wrote a two-hander, because there is a two-hander in Martin In The Fields and it was really strong.”
Sean also explains that Noah And The Tower Flower, which is described in the Fishanble Press Release as ‘a tender love story about two misfits looking for love in Ballymun – or at least someone to have a vodka with…’ also came out of his long-time affinity with Ballymun.
“I come from Artane, but you can see the Towers from certain areas in Artane,” he explains. “But the guy in the play is called Noel Murray and his nickname is ‘Noah’ and he has obsessive traits. He’s infatuated with Robert De Niro, or was some years back, and still is to a certain extent. He's interested in a certain type of De Niro character, like Taxi Driver's Travis. And I know when Paul Schrader wrote that script he had a lot of head bangers who came into him and one said, ‘How did you find out about me?’ That’s what this character is like, or was, and it comes back in the play. But if he is a problematic character and explosive when the world gets in on him and feels he’s being used by people and by friends he has, overall, got a good heart.”
So too does the female character referred to in the title of the play. As Sean explains, “pretty girls” who live in the Ballymun towers are called “Tower flowers” by Noah and by his mate.
“But if she’s pretty, she’s also pretty isolated and a reclusive character,” he says. “Yet she is a recovering heroin addict and has been off heroin for 14 months. She’s going strong, she has her serenity prayers, her mantra and I try to let the audience make up their minds about her when it comes to whether she’s alcohol dependent or not. I don’t push that too hard. But we get glimpses of it in the morning, we wonder what’s she doing in a pub at 11 in the morning, after getting her dole. And she’s looking for a cure. But overall, this character is looking forward to her new life she’s getting as part of this regeneration of Ballymun scheme. So, it’s a big step for her. Yet she has the kind of mentality, ‘I’ll get the job when I’m over there and when my new life officially starts. But right now I’m in limbo.’”
And that pretty much sums up what many young people in Ireland might be feeling right now.
“Yeah, and she might be just kidding herself at the end of the day,” Sean agrees. “And that’s what Noah says to her at one point in the play. But their journey is what Noah And The Tower Flower is all about.”