Dramaturgy Life: Jeremy Weller @ Edfringe 2017

Grassmarket Projects present

Doglife

WORLD PREMIERE 

Cairns Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 4 - 27 August (not 14 and 21), 19:45 (20:55), 16+

Devised by Jeremy Weller and Thomas McCrudden | Directed by Jeremy Weller

Following the success of Doubting Thomas at the 2016 festival, former gangland enforcer Thomas McCrudden returns for part two of a trilogy exploring love, being loved and forgiveness with cast of female non-actors. 

Thomas plays himself in this for this deeply personal and visceral performance based on his writings and experiences of being an enforcer for organised crime organisations, a man struggling to change from a violent past to a more hopeful future. 

Many of the women in his life appear on stage: his mother, ex partners, ex-wife and daughter, along with many of his victims from whom he desperately seeks forgiveness.

What was the inspiration for this performance?
Making Doubting Thomas in 2016 with Thomas Mccrudden (a former enforcer for organised crime), who played himself in the show, I kept hearing about the lack of love in his childhood and wondered what part lack of love played in him becoming the person that he did. So in this show we are cutting deeper into this one question what does love mean to him, past, present and future.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?
Performance is the best place for public discussion and to explore an idea, it remains a free domain, unmediated, in a world over monitored and over mediated.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I never became interested in performance, it was just the only place where I could explore my experiences and the experiences of marginalised

individuals and groups that I grew up with, with out needing to seek permission from anyone. For me theatre is a tough institution to penetrate especially with a group of untrained actors.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
Naivety, asking questions, wanting to find out something, and in my case from the source, which is a lived life. Asking questions about experience through those who have lived the experiences.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?
Yes. Very much. Very typical

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope that the audience will see someone else’s life, someone that the chances are they would have no opportunity to meet or know other than through the bridge of the stage.