Marty Breen: ‘This show is a bold, brash and ballsy tragicomedy about complicity’
Actor, theatremaker and intimacy co-ordinator Marty Breen’s genre-defying fusion of cabaret, theatre, and stand-up has marked them as a rising star on the Irish arts scene. We chat to them about life in the theatre, the improv troupe that makes them brave, and the cultural touch points that inform their work.
Marty Breen’s bold new show, B*TCH, explores punch-down humour, resenting your identity, and questions of complicity through original music, razor-sharp wit, and a knockout dual performance with sharp humour and searing honesty. Written, composed and performed by Marty, and directed by award-winning theatremaker Jeda de Brí, this production brings together some of Ireland’s most exciting independent creatives.
Following its sold out run at Dublin Fringe Festival—where it won Best Performer and Spirit of the Fringe awards—the show will play at Project Arts Centre Dublin for one week only before taking on Edinburgh Fringe.
Described as an explosion of theatrical chaos, B*TCH is a raw and provocative piece that challenges societal norms, making the audience reconsider what makes a ‘bad guy’ and a ‘good victim’, and our own complicity in what we all allow to happen. It asks: do bad people make bad things happen?
Marty’s previous theatre credits include Jo March in Little Women at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast; Ray Dooley in The Beauty Queen of Leenane; and Ariel in The Tempest, Rough Magic. Their screen credits include Good Boy (RTÉ), Say Nothing (FX, Disney+), and Baltimore (Samson Films). Marty is also a founding member of Broad Strokes, an all-women-&-NB improv troupe.
Was a career in the arts something you always aspired to?
If you ask anyone I grew up with who saw me perform Tim Minchin’s nine-and-a-half minute long beat poem as my party piece (no, that’s not a joke, I did think people would sit that long at a literal party – though they usually did), they would probably say yes. But I was a pretty frenetic kid – always doing something, teaching, writing, music, commuting long hours to Dublin to do or see plays – so while the arts feels almost inevitable, I don’t think you could have told me then I would have settled for one thing. I wanted to do everything. Still do.
You’re a founding member of Broad Strokes, an all-women-&-NB improv troupe — tell us about the group and your role within it.
Back in 2021, in the height of Covid, I met a girl at a day-long audition in a pool. It sounds like a meet-cute. It was way too intense for that. Think The Apprentice but in swimsuits. We got a train home together absolutely reeling and laughing our holes off at how weird being an actor is. I ran into her in a café a few months later and she said she was putting together this troupe – all strangers to me – of funny women to do improv, take back some autonomy, and do something creative after the weirdness of lockdowns. I had never even seen an improv show, I hadn’t been onstage in about a year, and I couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying. I said yes immediately.
Cut to four years later and Ciara Berkeley is not only one of the finest actors and directors out there, but one of my best friends. I feel incredibly lucky she found me so I could, in turn, find my people. The troupe is made up of hysterically funny actor and filmmaker Niamh McAllister; actor-musician extraordinaire Elishka Lane; costume design genius Mae Leahy (who is designing the dress for B*TCH and blows my mind daily); and trad musician multitalent Roisin McGuill.
The Broads are my girl band – we tour together, we support each other, and most importantly, we somehow sell out shows to play like children in the schoolyard. (With hard-earned finesse and perfectionism and weekly rehearsals, I will say!) Doing Broad Strokes is one hundred percent how I could do B*TCH. I never would have attempted standup, audience interaction and something this out there without our years together as a bedrock. They make me brave!
B*TCH will run at Project Arts Centre before heading to Edinburgh Fringe. How would you describe it to someone who has never seen it?
A bold, brash, ballsy tragicomedy about complicity.
I used to be really reticent to say much about the show, as I think it works best when people come in blind, but things like trailers of show snaps do kind of require context. So I’m trying to reconcile audiences coming in knowing some of the journey they’re going on: that they will laugh, mostly, and then maybe they won’t.
“You have to laugh, or you might die,” B*TCH says in her opening song. Oh yeah, there’s also music and big bawdy piano songs. (I can hear an eye roll somewhere. F*ckin’ musicals!) But B*TCH is looking at what a bad person is (or if they even exist in the way we imagine them) in hopefully a
fresh and funny new ways, through standup and music, some smoke and mirrors to distract while the story snakes around us.
It’s also got incredible design by Suzie Cummins (lighting), Mae Leahy (design), Sarah McCann (makeup) and HK Ní Shríordan (sound) – led by our virtuoso director Jeda de Brí, an actual geniuses of Irish theatre. So come for a sumptuous, surprising, skilled sensory experience if nothing else.
What is the best part of your job?
The people. Both for who they are, for their generosity and soundness, and for getting to stand back and watch their skills. The B*TCH team in particular are some of the best, with talent coming out of their pores. (Biased? Me? Nah.) I’ll never forget our first production meeting sitting there looking at all these legends talking very seriously about the logistics of how to make an invisible beard (you’ll have to come see!), just because a few months before I had a notion and they believed in it. It was surreal.
Who is someone you look up to in the world of Irish theatre?
Sue Mythen, movement director. Her command and care in a room are unparalleled. The way she can help actors unlock miraculous things while subtly, supportively standing back is such a skill. I admire her and adore working with her, and Irish theatre is lucky to have her.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
B*TCH was an incredibly important show to make for me regardless of its reception, but it was a hard road to get it there (with, of course, moments of great joy and craic), so if I’m honest the very last day of Dublin Fringe last year was worth everything it took. After a heartbreaking show stop on what should have been our final show, the legends of Dublin Fringe and Bewley’s Theatre (huge shoutout to Colm, Bee and our producer Fiona) managed to find a way to squeeze in one last matinee so we could finish out our run.
If that afternoon wasn’t enough – the whole team coming back to see it out; an audience who came to see it not once, but twice; the flood of relief and pride when it was over – that night, B*TCH won two Dublin Fringe awards and was nominated for four, including Best Production. I will never forget diving off the stage and being submerged in a hug by the entire incredible team, all of whom had given so much to the show, propped me up, and are the reason we were up there at all. We then had a last hard-earned boogie – one of many!
What is one thing you wish everyone knew about working in the arts?
There is very little glamour.
What is one piece of advice you would give to someone hoping to have a career in the arts?
Be prepared to work hard, and be prepared to not work. And know how to stay sane while doing both. Oh also, try to be sound, no matter how hard it gets. I have a resting furious face when I’m confused or overloaded. I’m working on it.
Marty Breen’s life in culture
The last thing I saw and loved… Dancing at Lughnasa at the Olympia, transferred from the Gate Theatre, is a really beautiful production of such an iconic Irish play. Nicky Harley’s performance in particular as the quietest sister, Agnes, is so beautifully observed in her wide-eyed, heartbreaking hopefulness. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. If you missed it last summer, do not miss this last chance. It’s quietly superb.
The book I keep coming back to… On Connection by Kae Tempest lives on my bedside. I think they are the best living writer, and getting to observe their personal journey these past few years, while their lyrics and poetry are so simply universal, has been such a gift.
I find inspiration in… Getting home by the sea.
My favourite film is… I’m a sucker for Christmas movies, mostly for the nostalgia, and knowing we’ve arrived and it’s time to rest. Play the Home Alone soundtrack and I’m as happy as.
The song I listen to to get in the zone is… Fáinleog by the Gloaming.
The last (book/film/show/piece of work/artist etc.) I recommended is… The rest of the shows in Project Arts Centre’s As Seen In Fringe festival that B*TCH is a part of: Anatomy of a Night, Let’s Try Swingin’, and Anthem For Dissatisfaction are all cracking shows you’d be mad not to get a ticket to.
I never leave the house without… My helmet! Clumsies still cycle!
The film/performance/piece of work etc. I still think about is… Gina Moxley’s The Patient Gloria, performed jaw-droppingly by herself and Liv O’Donoghue, was one of the inspirations for B*TCH, and I’m in awe of the bravery and brashness and craft of her work. If I could make anything like that, I’d be made up. And that’s enough of that, because since working together on Rough Magic’s The Tempest back in 2022, I believe she’d tell me to cop on if I said any of this to her face.
My dream job would be… I’m doing it. Aside from B*TCH though, if you haven’t seen it, last year I had a proper pipe-dream job as Rebecca in the heartbreakingly funny four-parter Good Boy by screen geniuses Tony Cantwell, Fergal Costello and Hannah Mamalis. Getting to work with those legends on such a hysterical script, on the nicest set I’ve ever been on, was a proper dream job. If you haven’t seen it, go stream it now on the RTÉ Player – it’s wacky and wild and brilliantly tender. I loved making it, and I loved watching it even more.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… Don’t f*ck it up.
The art (book/film/performance/show etc.) that means the most to me is… At the moment, standup speaking about important things. It’s such a powerful tool to hit an audience with truths while they’re laughing. Nanette (Hannah Gadsby), NATE (Natalie Palamedies), X (Daniel Sloss), Ready For This? (Tim Minchin) and Look At You (Taylor Tomlinson) – all the comedy shows with dark undertones that were the inspiration for B*TCH.
The most challenging thing about being on stage is… The hour before. I can barely speak. I get so insular. Sorry to my gorgeous stage manager on B*TCH, Jude – I am not much craic.
After a show, I… Try see friends. I’m usually too high to come down for a long while. I need to talk very fast and maybe eat some chips and then I’m good.
If I wasn’t working in the arts, I would be… In a dog rescue centre.
The magic of theatre to me is… It’s a liminal space where people are together, wide open, in the dark, and there is a chance to change people’s minds – to make the world change shape. I’m not saying that always happens, or it doesn’t happen elsewhere. But that is the attempt. And every night, you get to try again. You won’t reach everyone. But when you do, without being wanky, that is actual magic. It’s the only woo-woo thing I believe in.
Photography by Jilly McGrath, Simon Lazewski, Wil Coban and Niamh Barry.
B*TCH by Marty Breen runs at the Project Arts Centre from 22-26 July. Tickets are on sale now.
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