GCN contributor, and all round good time gal Licky Rake, talks with theatre maker Tracy Martin about her new show ‘WRAPPED’ in this year’s Tiger Dublin Fringe.

Licky: So Tracy you’re looking tired, pale and let’s face it – a little over weight. What’s going on?
Tracy:I’ve been working loads on a new play called WRAPPED that’s in this years Tiger Dublin Fringe. So I’ve been doing lots of running around to get that organised and I guess eating too much fast food cos it saves me having to cook!

Licky: ‘Running around?’. Running around to the bakery before it closes I’d say.
Tracy: Eh yeah ok. There’s no need…

Licky: SO, a new show. Tell the readers about your past ‘shows’.
Tracy: A lot of the stuff I’d made in the past was especially for queer and lesbian audiences. I performed regularly as drag king Gringo O’Hara back in the day and more recently with the Chicago drag kings that came over. Then myself and yourself made a load of Licky Rakes live shows, again largely with a gay audience in mind.

Licky: Why the big interest in lesbania. What have lesbians ever done to you?
Tracy: Well a few lesbians have done quite a lot to…

Licky: HEY! No need for that!
Tracy: Sorry, sorry. Yeah well as a card carrying member of the gay community I’ve always been interested in creating work for a gay or queer audiences and putting our stories on the stage. It started with doing drag and loving performing to a largely lezer crowd and taking the piss out of the stereo types. Then doing your Licky shows I got to tell more crazy, abstract, wild stories that people seemed to love.

Licky: Like what AND EASY ON THE LANGUAGE!
Tracy:Well with the drag I wanted to do a character that thinks he’s a hit with the ladies but really isn’t though he did end up with a troupe of hot gals The Pony Girls being his side-kicks on stage. More recently I developed a character Justa Cunt – a giant vagina where my head is the clit, she’s angry – one angry cunt. She’s a lot of fun. With the Licky Rake Shows we had lots of funny lezer stories, my favourite was the lesbian couple where one woman thought her girlfriend was getting too hairy and in protest to this we had a gang of balaclavad Pro Hirsute women storm the stage. Pussy Riot before it’s time. And you Licky my favourite was you on the bar of Panti telling people how you and Whitney Houton used to be lovers, that was very special.

Licky: That’s a fact.
Tracy: And how you never you knew your husband was gay, even though he was always at the ‘sauna’ ‘cos of his dry skin’ and his best friend Philip used to share your bed.

Licky: My husband was what?! You’re obviously very good at making stuff up. Tell us about the Fringe show WRAPPED.
Tracy: I’d written a few plays and with this one I wanted to portray the women I see around me. Strong, messy, independent women – who party too hard and laugh too loud. Who sometimes make the wrong decisions and who ultimately only have themselves to blame if things go wrong. I really hate stories in popular culture that constantly portray women as weak and waiting and who only judge their success by whether they’re in a relationship or not. I also wanted to show a more subtle lesbian character and look at women who mightn’t be out, or even consider themselves gay. So I came up with WRAPPED and Ali and Lisa – two late twenties Dublin women who meet and become friends and we follow their adventures over an eight month period. It’s funny, gritty and pulls at your heart strings all at the same time.

Licky: That must have been quite a stretch for you creatively.
Tracy: Oh no. I think most of us can remember a time when we didn’t even know we were gay.

Licky: No I mean – it must have been quite a stretch for you remembering back to your twenties!
Tracy: Hey!

Licky: Ok calm down. Tell us the details of how to get tickets to WRAPPED.
Tracy: Its on from 5 – 13 at 8.45pm in Smock Alley and tickets are cheap as chips. You can book at here.
Licky: One more question.
Tracy: Ok.

Licky: Any regrets?
Tracy: Yeah. Inventing you, you crazy old bat.

Licky: Ha! I’m crazy? You’re the one talking to yourself!

For a chance to win tickets to ‘Wrapped’ click here.