Thisispopbaby: Glorious energy, grief and the twenty-first-century craic tax

Kenny, Martin, & Haughton, Miriam. (2024). Thisispopbaby: Glorious energy, grief and the twenty-first-century craic tax. In Anne Fogarty & and Eugene O’Brien (Eds.), The Routledge companion to twenty-first-century Irish writing (pp. 263-273). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003305392-24

Abstract

In 2007, THISISPOPBABY directors Phillip McMahon and Jennifer Jennings stuck lollipops to flyers around Dublin city, enticing audiences to attend their performance on the dance floor of Dublin’s Pod nightclub. For their 2009 ‘Queer Notions’ festival, McMahon reflects the world had not yet embraced the word ‘queer’ as it had a decade later (McMahon and Jennings Interview 2022). By 2022, they celebrated their 15-year anniversary, reflecting on worldwide audiences of more than 300,000 and a future production schedule that suggests their momentum continues to gather pace. TIPB has ‘redefined modern Irish theatre’ according to the Irish Times (Mullally 2012), activating urban spaces for theatrical performance that encompass nightclubs, festivals, boxing arenas, multidisciplinary performance spaces, children’s theatre, and indeed, the main stage of Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey Theatre, for their groundbreaking musical Alice in Funderland (2012). While McMahon and Jennings’ artistic intentions are led by joy, TIPB has contributed creatively to significant social and political discourse through staging national conversations regarding Ireland’s queer history, culture, and the Marriage Referendum (2015), women’s first-hand experiences of abortion, bodily autonomy and the Repeal the 8th Referendum (2018), and the role of narcotics in contemporary experience and intimate encounters. In this chapter, we draw from two case studies, Wake (2024, 2022) and Sure Look It Fuck It (2019) to explore the company’s thematic concerns and dramaturgical style.

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Routledge

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CC BY-NC-ND

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