New Irish musical ‘Privilege’ asks: is privilege the new faux pas?

'Privilege: The Musical!' hits Mermaids Arts Centre in March. We take a look at what to expect.

Entertainment . Written by Han Tiernan.

Press image from Privilege: The Musical! The photograph shows 5 people sitting and standing in a regal looking room with marble pillars and a gold throne. Around the floor are candles and a table cloth with fruit and empty champagne bottles tossed.
Image: Ste Murray

Have you ever wondered what is privilege? Why does mentioning it detonate conversations? What happens when five people try to make a musical to figure this out? Privilege: The Musical! That’s what.

This glittering new extravaganza is the most ambitious show to date from award-winning theatre-maker Louise White. Described as a soul-searching look at power and inequality, Louise explains her motivation for the piece. 

“It’s almost impossible to speak to people about their own privilege without it becoming an electric source of tension. I feel inadequate and ill-equipped to talk about these things, whether I am sitting across the Christmas family dinner table or gathered with old childhood friends — this causes me hurt and frustration.”

As a resident artist of Project Arts Centre, Louise is best known for her alternative, poignant productions exploring contemporary topics, including This is The Funeral of Your Life, Mother You, and Way Back Home. 

“All my work starts from something that I feel on a primal emotional level and that I can’t get past until I’ve explored it artistically. For my last project, it was how I would overcome my grief after my father’s death. 

“For Privilege: The Musical! I’m reaching out beyond my own feelings to explore the vastness of privilege with a bunch of performers, with different experiences to my own, to see if we can come to a new understanding of how to articulate ourselves and how to be better understood.”

As well as writing and directing the show, Louise also performs alongside a gender-bending, intersectional, fire-cracking cast of actors, dancers and musicians who helped to co-create the work.

Poster for Privilege: The Musical! The photograph shows 5 people sitting and standing in a regal looking room with marble pillars and a gold throne. Around the floor are candles and a table cloth with fruit and empty champagne bottles tossed.

Amongst Louise’s co-conspirators is Stephen Quinn (aka Stefan Fae). As one of the genius minds behind Spice Bag, the award-winning theatre and performance maker needs little introduction to GCN readers, following his smash hit successes with Shame//Less and Overfired. Stephen’s work explores Irish queer identity through a kaleidoscope of drag, burlesque, physical theatre, and alternative cabaret, making him the perfect fit for Privilege: The Musical! 

They’re also joined by multi-disciplinary artist, Jade O’Connor. Jade’s career has seen her on-screen alongside Olivia Coleman, in her own award-winning show CAGED, and in Catherine Young’s Floating On A Dead Sea, which offered a glimpse into life in Palestine. Ashley Xie is a Chinese actor, film director, dancer, writer and theatre practitioner exploring and creating unique voices in contemporary Asia and Europe. The show will also be Los Angeles-born artist Venus Patel’s Dublin theatre debut, and he could not be more excited! 

An original score for the show has been composed by award-winning Matt Regan, known for his socially conscious and formally adventurous work, with live cello from Lioba Petrie, and unique lyrics devised by Louise and the cast.

Packed with quirky show tunes, snowflake earnestness and knees up entertainment, this promises to be a show like no other and one not to be missed.

Privilege: The Musical! hits the stage Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray on Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5 with preview shows on March 2 and 3. To book go to www.mermaidartscentre.ie.

© 2022 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.

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