Ruth Mc Gowan, Literary & New Work Director at the Abbey Theatre, introduces Animals, a new work based on the short fiction of writer and podcaster Blindboy Boatclub, premiering at the Abbey this month.
The Abbey Theatre is a commissioning house. We invite leading Irish artists into creative conversation with us, and with each other so that extraordinary ideas can bloom.
National treasure and niche legend, Blindboy Boatclub is one of Ireland's most influential contemporary thinkers. As a writer, his distinctive prose depicts bizarre, magical realist happenings in a recognisably Irish world. His beloved podcast is a near decade-long work of narrative non-fiction, each episode inviting the audience to see the world through the eyeholes of his plastic bag mask. He shares bold and eclectic weekly deep dives on subjects ranging from fairy forts to French house music. Like if Flann O’Brien had too many tabs open.
The theatrical potential of his short fiction was clear to us here at the Abbey, their image-dense paragraphs teeming with fascinating characters and unpredictable scenarios. But could it be done? Who could keep pace with the velocity of imagination at work across his three volumes of short stories?
There was only one answer: Dan Colley.
Dan is one of Ireland's most celebrated and sought after theatre makers. Audiences from Toronto to Taiwan have taken his inventive, playful and empathetic work to their hearts. Across an impactful career, he has created unforgettable theatre, street spectacle, comedy festivals and films, all propelled by a zeal for collaboration. His plays are renowned for their vigorous theatricality, synthesising elements of improvisation, design and puppetry. Fascinated by the slipperiness of realities, Dan's work never lets you forget that the show is being conjured live in the moment, before your very eyes.
So, in 2024 we set off to Limerick to see if Dan and Blindboy wanted to make art together. By the end of a week of play and experimentation in the Belltable, they did.
Dan uses a process-driven approach to theatre making. The performance emerges from the collective creativity of the cast and design team from the earliest stages of development. Multiple perspectives and artistic gestures are layered on top of one another to create highly original performance works. Here, the form meets the content, because this is a show about letting multiple realities coexist.
Every performance of Animals is a chilled performance, taking a more casual attitude toward audience noise and movement.
Animals challenges us to break free from the idea that reality is a singular, fixed entity that can be owned by one dominant perspective. Surreal is subjective, after all – a strange encounter for you might be an entirely logical response for someone else. The absurdity of the events in these stories is rooted in a profound curiosity about human nature. How we mask and how we avoid. How we spill over and how we implode. In an era where the essential instability of the world has become more transparent, we increasingly turn to voices that defy the mainstream to help us make sense of the times we live in. Strange times are not so strange for people who the rules weren’t made for.
No better place to try and complicate our idea of reality than in a theatre. You can be in ancient Thebes listening to Oedipus plead for mercy from the vengeful gods, but you are also in the national theatre listening to the Luas trundle past on a wet Dublin night. Every performance of Animals is a chilled performance, taking a more casual attitude toward audience noise and movement. We want every Steaming Caoimhe, Ten-Foot Declan, and Dublin Theatre Festival aficionado to feel comfortable being themselves in our space.
The animals of the title roam freely across the pages of Blindboy’s books. ANIMALS reveal something about our humanity – how we can sooner find empathy for a stray creature than for a next-door neighbour. Dan’s selection of stories points to a truth we like to ignore; we humans are part of the animal kingdom too. When the stakes are high, things can get wild pretty quickly.
Dan declined an offer to publish this play text. He knows the script can’t provide a true capture of the work, with its glorious kaleidoscope of music, live video and performance. This show can’t be tamed into 2D typeface, or taxidermied onto the page. Animals can’t be read.
Blindboy was asked by a morning radio host to tell the listeners about the play. He said he couldn’t describe it. Indescribable for Blindboy! A man of staggering eloquence on all subjects, from psychobiology to German expressionism. Animals can’t be described.
Animals can only be experienced live. You in your seat, the ensemble on stage, sharing space and time and atmosphere. This is what theatre can do. It’s a place where the indescribable can be felt in unison.
Animals is at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, until 7 Nov 2026 - find out more here
