We chatted to Derek (creator, producer and star) of ‘Mammy’s House’, playing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse from the 1st to the 13th September.
Derek, how does it feel to be bringing ‘Mammy’s House’ to the stage?
The feeling is absolutely incredible. To say that this play has changed my life would be an understatement. We have put our blood sweat and tears into this for several years now and it feels amazing to see all that work pay off.
What can audiences expect from the show?
We are telling the truly untold stories of queer Irish migrants during the aids crisis so you can expect a side of the aids crisis we’ve never heard from before and from a very different perspective but of course because it’s Irish people it’s still full of Irish humour and a lot of craic.
How did the idea behind the play come about?
During the first lockdown in 2020 I attended an online talk being given by Dr Joseph Healy about LGBT Irish Migrants during the aids crisis and I had never heard any of this from an Irish perspective before and it really did blow me away. I headed off to research it more and there’s so little information out there about it, it felt like far too important a story and far too important a part of our history to just be lost to time so we set about telling it ourselves.
What was it about the history behind London’s Irish LGBTQ+ community that captured your attention?
It’s very rare these days to come across something that hasn’t been done before and on top of that I am a part of Londons Irish LGBT+ community and it feels like if I was 10-20 years older this would have been me and my friends that were experiencing this. So it just feels like it’s part of my history from several aspects and it feels really close to my heart.
How has it been watching this show develop?
It has been quite the journey getting us from where we started to where we are now. I have so much respect for anyone who manages to create and produce their work as you really do need to be a jack of all trades and juggle 75 different things at once. I could not be more delighted with how far we’ve come and with the amazingly talented people I get to work with to bring this story to the stage. We feel such a responsibility to the people who shared their history and experiences with us to develop the project and it is beyond time that their stories were heard.
To book tickets click here.