Niamh McPhillips

Our January Maker…

Niamh McPhillips is a theatre maker and performer who specialises in intimacy co-ordination and movement. She co-runs Confession Box Collective, creating rich interdisciplinary work.

We first met at the launch of Scene and Heard 2023, bonding over the lack of vegetarian sausages and have been drawn to each others work ever since.

Niamh’s route to theatre was very much a surprise to herself as horses were her first love and in many ways still are. She took part in varying stage schools growing up but it wasn’t until the fourth year musical of The Adam’s Family where she began to feel a spark.

‘‘And then after that I randomly was like okay I might try Youth Theatre. That’s in Monagahan town which is fourty minutes away from me, so to be honest that was a bit of a trek. I don’t know if my parents appreciated it. But anyway I really liked it, I really loved Youth Theatre. Then it was oh no I’ve caught this thetare bug I can’t get rid of it.’’

From a young age she was introduced to the world of theatre and dance as her mum would bring the family to London and sneak the children into as many shows as possible. Being thrown into the world of ballet even if she felt she was awful at it brought her to mime and acted as a gateway to theatre.

‘‘I was going into college and I was like I’m meant to be doing courses and then I tricked myself and I tricked my parents. That sounds awful but I was like I’ll do drama because if I do drama then I can be a drama therapist as my mum is a play therapist. So I thought that’s a real job she’ll agree to that and they kind of did. Which was great but then the problem was - oh no I really like this. I don’t think they’ve still really accepted that - they’re very supportive but I don’t think they really understand it.’’

Her love for theatre, musicals and plays was reinforced throughout college. But as she began to shift to life post education, so did her outlook on the field as a whole. In a natural sense it unleashed the endless questioning of what is the point of all this?Why are we making? This search drew her to more politically driven theatre initially, yet being aware that she hasn’t landed on an exact answer and mightn’t ever.

‘‘The world is a very fucked up place and the only we can make somewhat of sense of it is through art. Like Monet’s waterlilies, he did that when his wife died, his son died so that was how he grieved and that was the output. But I am still figuring it out.’’

In relation to the work she wants to make, disorted beauty is always chasing her. The process of taking something normal and putting it on its head, having an audience think and to be charged with a lack of steadiness and balance.

‘‘I’m doing my masters now and there I found out I was dyslexic, dyspraxic and that’s probably why I like things unsteady because I’m frickin unsteady all the time. I like when things are slightly off or jagged. I hate straight lines, in dance, movement or on a stage I hate straight lines - unless there’s a particular purpose for that. I’m kind of learning more that with our brain neurons, we see in art what we want to see. There is a selfish thing to it.’’

Excitingly her taste has completely transformed from when she was in college, with an abstract language seeming all the more dazzling now. Works such as Beckett which she once rejected are now worlds where she would adore to delve into. Even though she feels Beckett wouldn’t approve of her own retellings of his plays.

‘‘The world is just too complicated to just like mirror it on stage, you have to completely rip it apart and abstract it and kind of put it on its head and make your own meaning of it. So now, I’m not obsessed with Beckett, to be honest I think he was a bit of a prick but I do like a lot of his plays.’’

History and politics are also continuous sources as she makes, references such as Anu and Peeping Tom. As long as there a layer of truthfulness cutting through in its execution then the story is worth exploring. These themes have led her to questioning the morals of art and a fascination for intimacy practice and movement direction blossomed.

She is figuring out what biases she would naturally be deriving from in her perspective while leaving room to play in the space as well.

‘‘Especially with art there’s only so much you can prep and I know this sounds weird but it is a wee bit like horse riding. You know there is like a give and take, it is kind of like am I pulling the reigns too hard now it’s going to be bitting at the bit or I need to loosen it up so he can actually go. I know that sounds really weird but sometimes when I’m with actors or any kind of artist - it’s horrible but I do kind of look at them as if they were a horse. It is a bit weird but I’d always watch the races on the telly as a kid and it’s like a performance, it’s a show.’’

This led us down the neverending questioning that all artists ask, as to what is art? The balance of burrying yourself down that hole in order to hopefully feed your work while simply wanting to throw it all away and make for the sake making.

‘‘That is a problem with me, I know that sometimes I need to have an answer - no, you don’t need to have an answer. Sometimes there’s like this terrible thing when I was younger, Catholic guilt. But it’s this thing of thinking there’s only one way of doing something when there’s not. I know deep down there’s not but I’ll fall into this habitual thing of asking artists - what is your practice? How are you doing it? And most of the time people don’t know. Or it’s personal and it just works for them.’’

With the understanding that your process is continuously changing, how can you mould it when it needs to be articulated for applications? How do you differentiate between habbits and processes to know what works best for you?

For Niamh so much of the crucial steps are done through improv. In particular where she can blend her experience of theatre and movement while imagining visually.

‘‘I’m really interested in the movement language. That’s why I don’t really like saying I’m an actor anymore probably because it’s embarassment, but I don’t like text most of the time. For me text is secondary and for an actor that’s like the no no, like the text comes first!’’

And the traditional Notes for a Future Memoir…

Inclusive

Passionate

Groundbreaking

Niamh is currently doing her Masters in Intimacy Practice in London and can be found on instagram @mcphillipsniamh