Q&A with Ultan Pringle – Writer of Boyfriend – Project Arts Centre

By No More Workhorse on June 17, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Q&A with Ultan Pringle – Writer of Boyfriend – Project Arts Centre

We had the chance to put some questions to Ultan Pringle ahead of the opening of his new play Boyfriend. Ultan wrote the play and also stars in it. You can see the results below.

LemonSoap Productions stage the world premiere of Ultan Pringle’s latest play BOYFRIENDS – opens at Project Arts Centre, Dublin (26 June – 6 July) during Pride week 2024 – also tours to An Grianán, Letterkenny, Co Donegal (11- 13 July) – more at https://www.lemonsoap.ie/boyfriends

Can you tell me about your company LemonSoap Productions. When did it start and how many of you are involved?

LemonSoap, made up of myself, Lisa Nally, Owen Clarke and HK Ní Shioradáin and is named after a bar of soap from Ulysses (because of course it is). The company came to be in late 2021. In college, we’d all studied and made plays together, like Fishamble and Rough Magic before us, and we found ourselves all graduated and grown up and we decided why don’t we try and keep the gang together? And it’s been a lifesaver recently, a little community, as we bash out plays and audio dramas and musicals and try and make joy and magic and interesting plays possible.

What type of theatre do you hope to make?

I and we, I think, want to make a theatre of today. Theatre invested in asking questions of what’s around us, what we’ve inherited, questioning what madness is unfolding all around us. And theatre which is rollicking, and entertaining, and maybe a bit cheeky. Stories big and small, stories of characters, characters we can hate or love or hate to love or love to hate. Theatre, for me, is an empathy machine. A chance to sit and consider and dream together. I’d love to make theatre which takes advantage of that. A theatre which asks questions and promptly whisks you off into the night to ponder them.

You wrote this play and also star in this production. Was it important to have a director Joy Nesbitt involved, to get a different set of eyes on the work?

It’s such an act of hubris, isn’t it? To act and write a role for yourself. Who do I think I am? A plus-size gay man Phoebe Waller Bridge? (I wish.) I’m well aware it’s a massive ask – to perform your own work – and I think someone doing so needs to be pushed and provoked and challenged to make something rigorous and nuanced and sharp. That’s where the great privilege of working with Joy Nesbitt comes in. Like all masterclass directors, she provokes and considers, and challenges and cradles. It’s a treat and a delight, and really sure I’m just having the time of my life.

Can you tell the readers a little about Boyfriends?

What does romance look like now? In a world of apps, housing crises and dreaded situationship? And how do our bodies define us? And how do they sing and scorn when they become intertwined? And what happens when someone’s core is solid rock and their lover’s a pure supernova? That for me is what Boyfriends is about. But maybe I’m being an ostentatious writer here, so I’ll also say: Boyfriends is about two fellas who somehow end up in an undefined unsure maybe, maybe not romance where sex, Madonna, Period Dramas, calories and a decrepit pug dog play a big huge part.

This is a touring production with performances in Dublin and Donegal. Is it nice to take the work to your home County?

I’m buzzing to bring Boyfriends to Donegal. Not least because I can’t wait to kiss a fella in my underwear in front of my Granny! (Though I’m being facetious, for she’s a gay icon and I’ve nothing to fear.) Though being honest, I am pure over the moon. For I think An Grianán and the brilliant team there have been glorious collaborators on Boyfriends, they alongside the Project Arts Centre, have been champions of this show and I feel such luck to have the support of such dynamite theatres at Boyfriends’ back.

PS – I’m also excited to bring Boyfriends home for Donegal could always do with more gay stuff, if you ask little old me.

What are you working on next? Are there any new productions in the works for LeomonSoap?

Oh, always, there’s always more and more plays! But right now I’m drowning in line learnings and costume fittings so they do feel very, very far away. But we’ve a little middle ages gay musical treat maybe coming up very soon with our wonderful HK Ní Shioradáin. And we just released not so long ago our audio show Pistachio starring the incomparable Hollywood legend Piper Laurie, so if you crave a LemonSoap hit, she’s available online now!

Ultan Pringle is a writer and director from Co Donegal. He is one-quarter of LemonSoap Productions and has written Marmalade Row, It Is Good We Are Dreaming, Piglet, Fruit and Pistachio starring three-time Oscar nominee Piper Laurie. As a 2021 Activate Residency recipient at The Backstage Theatre, Longford, he developed a new queer musical about seven LGBTQIA+ struggling twenty-somethings in Dublin today. He was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in the UK for his play Lavender Hill and wrote for the 2024 24Hour Plays with the Abbey Theatre. His previous acting credits include Falling For The Life Of Alex Whelan on RTE Two and a lot of Dad roles while in college. He is deeply intrigued by and invested in stories which investigate human relationships and the extraordinary in the everyday – his new play BOYFRIENDS premieres this June: