Will Irvine, originally from County Down, has had a lot of unusual sounding theatre experience so The 24 Hour Plays in aid of Dublin Youth Theatre supported by BNP Paribas Real Estate should be a breeze for him. Right? Book your ticket now to see how that goes for him 😉
Introduce yourself please. You can even describe yourself as if you are being introduced as a guest facilitator at a DYT workshop.
Will came to Dublin from County Down as a fresh-faced seventeen year old to train as an actor, lose his hair and soften his t’s. Since then he has performed with some of Ireland’s most venerable companies playing everything from a blind mutant to a washed up rock star to The Prince of Darkness Himself. He has also collaborated with various wonderful people as a writer/deviser/director, assisting ANU with gritty historical explorations and writing and performing elaborate toilet-humour-with-a-heart with Karl Quinn in ‘Connected’.
Have you participated in The 24 Hour Plays in aid of Dublin Youth Theatre before? If yes what is your fondest/ most nightmare causing memories? If no what are you looking forward to/ terrified of?
I have always looked on enviously from the sidelines at 24 Hour Plays over the years and am delighted to be in the matchday squad this time round. I’m expecting repeated waves of hysteria, long queues for a nervous pee backstage and some of the greatest theatre ever made or seen anywhere ever.
If you could give your teenage self a piece of advice what would it be?
First of all I’d say, eat better food: don’t waste years of your life eating pasta and stir in sauce. I was a very contrary teenager though so would definitely have ignored any advice given to me by a strange haggard version of myself who had gained a strange brogue from 13 years in Dublin. I might try to patiently tell myself to do more of the things I enjoy and not to spend my twenties worrying about things that weren’t going to happen anyway, but teenage me would be too busy worrying to listen.
What theatrical experience has had the biggest impact on you?
I think the most profound experiences I’ve had in the theatre have always been as an audience member: seeing Waiting for Godot for the first time and feeling like someone had taken the lid off my head and stirred my brain with an electric spoon; standing in the Globe and seeing Mark Rylance make speaking Shakespeare as subversive a thrill as streaking in church.
Describe the craziest costume you have ever worn.
I seem to have avoided ‘crazy’ costumes over the years, although now that I come to think about it I have ended up in more skirts than would seem normal. [Did we give that bunny suit from 2013 back? Dang it!]
Don’t miss Will’s contribution to The 24 Hour Plays in aid of Dublin supported by BNP Paribas.Book your ticket now and see you on January 31 in the Abbey Theatre.