Amy chats to Dee Mulrooney creator of Growler which is on at Edinburgh Fringe this year.
Hey Growler – here’s your chance to give an elevator pitch, can you give us a brief synopsis?
Growler an 82-year-old Vulva from the working class inner city of Dublin wielding a Holy Staff and Trolley and takes the audience on a theatrical, alchemical journey. She´s on a mission to heal the past so we have a future. Using song, spoken word, poetry and comedy she enables us to love the eejit out of ourselves, to mine the gold in the hurt.
What inspired the show?
Growing up working class with curly hair and big boobs meant my voice was either heard as a biting terrier or not at all. Growler grew from the direct trauma of leaving Ireland in middle age due to losing our home. She came through one day when I was talking to my womb, I have severe endometriosis. I started to have a dialogue out loud with her. I liked the cut of her jib and what she had to say, she has been with me ever since.
How important is the Fringe for new work? And how does it feel to be at the Fringe this year?
In a word, vital. A massive opportunity unlike any other, like speed dating for artists, or actually a marathon. Having sold out at Dublin Fringe last year, Edinburgh was the next step. I feel ready, more ready than anything I’ve ever done in my life. I am not an ambitious person. I have no desire for fame but I am driven. Growler feels like a vocation, she leads the way and I follow.
What are the main themes within the production, and what can audiences expect?
Displacement, exile, longing, belonging, tribe, home, healing, remembering. Growler is the forgotten woman, a voice for the voiceless and she leaves no stone unturned in her quest. She talks to the dead, and conversations with Witches and God pepper her flowery vernacular. She walks a knife edge between hilarity and tragedy, she is adorable and confronting at the same time. There is singing, music and transmutation.
Finally, with so many shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, why should people book a ticket to this show?
Growler is the OG or as she says herself the MOG (Mother of God), walking the streets with her blazing trolley, her tongue like a lash and her massive heart of gold. She is an inferno we can all warm the cockles of our hearts around. She has been here since the beginning, she birthed Gods, and she has something to say about where we are at right now, end-stage capitalism and Anthropocene.
Growler is on at Summerhall from 2nd – 26th August at 7pm – info here!
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