Strange Fish Theatre Company are no strangers to Omnibus Theatre, having take Clapham by storm last year with The Turn of the Screw. Now they’re back for Irish Season! With Owen McCafferty‘s award-winning play Quietly, no less.
We sat down with Artistic Director and Co-Founder Nick Danan, to find out more about the company and their exciting new production.
OMNIBUS THEATRE: Why the name “Strange Fish”?
NICK DANAN: Well, I was trying to come up with a name and I liked the idea of Strange Fish. Just because these fish are different it doesn’t mean they aren’t beautiful – they are unique in the watery underworld. Our Strange Fish Theatre Company consists of very talented individual characters who certainly don’t follow the crowd nor established convention; and yet despite of our differences, we’re still a shoal.
OT: Where did the company meet and form?
ND: Strange Fish was founded by four friends and comprises five members who are Northern Irish, Irish, or London Irish – from both sides of the religious divide. We’ve all been friends for years, and have acted together in plays such as the original West End production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Kathy Burke’s production of The Quare Fellow.
So, this all led us to forming our own Irish theatre company based in London which directly links to the Irish tradition of storytelling. We want to stage work that has universal heart and soul. Our mission is simple: to tell great stories well.
OT: How are the current social/political circumstances affecting the work that Strange Fish does?
ND: 2018 marks 20 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which has led to two decades of peace in Northern Ireland. 2018 is also a year of great uncertainty: Brexit has created a huge problem with the Irish border question and there seems to be no solution in sight.
This uncertainty jeopardises peace in Northern Ireland and that’s why Strange Fish chose as its second production to do a revival of Owen McCafferty’s play Quietly. It couldn’t be more timely or pertinent: the play’s main theme is around how hard it is to achieve reconciliation and just how fragile peace can be.
OT: Quietly is coming to Omnibus Theatre as part of its Irish season from 9 to 27 October: what can you tell us about the play?
ND: This is a multi-award-winning drama by Owen McCafferty – one of Ireland’s finest living playwrights – it’s set in a Belfast bar during a World Cup qualifying match between Northern Ireland and Poland in 2009. It’s about two men trying to come to terms with a devastating crime one of them committed when they were young. These two men, under the watchful eye of a Polish immigrant barman, revisit the past to try and escape from it.
When Strange Fish spoke to Owen McCafferty he said this about his play Quietly: “I wanted to write about the ripple effect of a violent act over time. It was originally a bigger play, with a bigger cast. But the more I worked on the notes and thought about it, I came to realise that the reconciliation element was what was the most important and significant thing.
“It felt that was the aspect that was so difficult to escape from, the idea of people confronting that possibility years later. Dramatically, the aftermath is more important. The pain doesn’t end with the event.”
OT: Why should someone come to see Quietly?
ND: This is one of those plays you’ll never forget – it just lives on in your bones. I’ll always carry the feeling of seeing Jerusalem for example and Owen’s play has got the same capacity.
We also want people to feel relaxed and stay after the show – have a drink, enjoy the craic with us and others in our growing Strange Fish community; we are an Irish theatre company after all.
QUIETLY will be at Omnibus Theatre from 9-27 Oct – get your tickets here→
