Good Sex by Dead Centre with Emilie Pine

Dublin Theatre Festival (2022)

How do you have sex on stage? How do you even have sex?

To try and find an answer, each night, two brand new performers tell a story of desire, betrayal and loneliness. They have never rehearsed together or read the script. They are strangers.

But they are not alone — to help and guide them they are joined on stage by an Intimacy Director, trained in the art of teaching people how to touch. So you can rest assured that the sex is safe. It is consensual. And it is good.

After two years when touching was a transgressive act, and our bodies were sites of sickness, Dead Centre and award-winning novelist and essayist Emilie Pine created Good Sex, a love story for a loveless age.

GOOD SEX premiered 29th September 2022 at Samuel Beckett Centre, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival.

GOOD SEX toured to Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts & Society, Groningen and Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Hamburg in August 2023, kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

ARTIST

Dead Centre Theatre Company

Founded in 2012 by Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, Dead Centre has gained a reputation as one of Europe’s most innovative and exciting young theatre companies. 

Work includes: LIPPY (2013), winner of the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Production, a Fringe First, a Herald Angel, a Total Theatre Award and two OBIE Awards. It has toured around the world, including to the Young Vic in London, Schaubühne, Berlin and Traverse, Edinburgh; Chekhov’s First Play (2015) which has toured to destinations including Schaubühne, Berlin, Brisbane Festival, Helsinki Festival, Battersea Arts Festival (London), and many more; Hamnet (2017) has toured throughout the world, including BAM in New York, Hong Kong Festival, and the Southbank Centre, London; Beckett’s Room, (2019) has toured to Warwick Arts Centre, Theatre de Liège and to Teatro Piccollo, Milan; To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) was created in 2020 during the pandemic, and was streamed live to audiences around the world. It has since been streamed to festivals in Liège, Hong Kong and Paris. A German-language version, Die Maschine in Mir, was created for Burgtheater, Vienna.

The company has also created work with the ensembles at some of Europe’s major theatres, including Shakespeare’s Last Play at Schaubühne, Berlin (2018), The Interpretation of Dreams (2020) and Alles, was der Fall ist (2021) at Burgtheater, Vienna, and The Silence (2021) at Göteborgs Stadsteater. In 2021 they directed their first opera, Bählamms Fest at Ruhrtriennale, Germany. Their latest work Good Sex premiered at Dublin Theatre Festival 2022. They will be creating new work in 2023 for Burgtheater and Deutsche Oper, Berlin.

Mags was Dead Centre’s company producer initially as maternity cover in 2021, and then on a permanent basis from July 2022 - August 2023. Mags worked on productions including To Be a Machine (Version 2.0) and Good Sex at Dublin Theatre Festival 2022. Mags also worked on Dead Centre’s touring productions including Chekhov’s First Play to MESS Festival, Sarajevo 2021, To Be a Machine (Version 1.0) to Le Cent-Quatre, Paris 2021 and Beckett’s Room to Theatre de Liege, Belgium and Warwick Arts Centre, UK in 2021 and to Teatro del Piccolo, Milan in 2022.

www.deadcentre.org

CAST DUBLIN (2022)

Muiris Crowley & Niamh Mccann
Aoibheann Mcann & Rory Nolan
Patrick Martins & Toni O’rourke
Jeanne Nicole Ní Áinle & Danielle Galligan
Jolly Abraham & Ian Toner
Chris Walley & Siobhán Cullen

Featuring / Liv O’Donoghue, Alexandra Conlon, Barry McKiernan

CREATIVE TEAM

Onstage Crew / Ciaran Murphy, Emma-Kate O’Reilly

Stage Design / Aedín Cosgrove
Lighting Design / Stephen Dodd
Sound Design & Music / Jenny O'malley
Costume Design / Mae Leahy

Intimacy Directors / Sue Mythen, Abigail Kessel

Sound Engineer / Leon Henry
Wardrobe Assistant / Eimear Hussey
Fight Director / Ciaran O’grady
Production Manager / Anthony Hanley
Stage Manager / Olivia Drennan
Assistant Stage / Manager Anika Kidd
Assistant Director / Eftychia Spyridaki
Props / Dylan Farrell

Text / Dead Centre With Emilie Pine
Dramaturg / Bush Moukarzel
Producer / Natalie Hans
Associate Producer / Killian Coyle
Company Producer / Mags Keohane
Director / Ben Kidd

With thanks To Simon Alteen, Kia Gates, Chloe O'Reilly, Ben Waddell, Macleod Stephen, Molly Whelan, Liam Bixby, Hazel Clifford, Holly Hannaway, Adam Richardson, Maeve Bradley And Cathal Ryan

LEAD ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Supported by the Arts Council and Dublin Theatre Festival.

GALLERY

Photo Credits Ste Murray