An award-winning writer and actor from Newry is set to play her biggest role yet at the Arcola Theatre London as part of their 25th anniversary season.
Playwright Meghan Tyler trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and, since then, has stared on TV screens and theatre stages.
Taking inspiration from her interests and upbringing, Meghan had a ‘deep need’ to represent South Armagh on stage.
Crocodile Fever is described as a “surreal exploration of what goes on behind closed doors through the estranged relationship of two sisters.
“Set during the height of the Troubles in 1980s Northern Ireland, Crocodile Fever is a hilarious, blood-soaked story of two estranged sisters facing off against the past – and one another.
“Fuelled by Taytos, gin, 80s anthems and a chainsaw, it’s the Devlin sisters versus the world. It can’t end happily, but it can end gloriously.”
Armagh I had the opportunity to chat to Meghan and get an insight into Crocodile Fever and what to expect!
What inspired Crocodile Fever – do you remember a specific moment or idea that sparked it?
It was quite a number of wild and wonderful things merging together. For a start, I was heavy into my eighties tunes at the time.
Douglas Maxwell’s Fever Dream: Southside at the Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow, blew me away in how the impossible can be made possible on stage, and become a moment in time of live, unflinching theatre magic. And I had a deep need to represent South Armagh on stage.
Now, this furiously funny dialogue had been bouncing about in my head for a while. I knew it was between two sisters, but I didn’t know what the linchpin was. Call it fate, or a stroke of luck, but I randomly decided to visit my Derrybeg-born dad out in the countryside.
It was pitch black in the dead of a sweltering summer night, I was the only one awake, and I hadn’t a notion on how to change the television (not without trying), so I was stuck half-watching this Steve Backshall documentary. When he started interviewing the Asmat Tribe about their crocodile legends, I was drawn in – as a child I was obsessed with Irish myths and legends, this emulated that – and that dialogue just clicked into place. From that documentary on, I knew exactly what the story was, and spent three sleepless nights bashing out a first draft.
What has most influenced your work?
So many things. Sitcoms, cartoons, a behemoth collection of plays and movies and music. But Samuel Beckett’s sense of rhythm is my heartbeat. Douglas Adams, Sarah Kane, Shakespeare – they’ve all built up different sections of who I am as a creative. Influences build up, I think, until you find your own ground. Like, in a sense, everything has influenced my work.
Being from Newry, wanting to challenge the status quo, finding my mammy’s record collection as a teenager – take your pick. Maybe sometimes really bad work has influenced my work? If you watch something, and you hate everything about it, do the exact opposite and see where you end up. It’s a huuuuuge question.
You originally trained as an actor – how has that background helped your writing?
Parts. For. Women. Drama school brought about heaploads of frustration – every time we did a show, the lads got their own parts to play, and we had to split our roles. The ‘film’ job we did, we were all accessories to men and exposed to some really unacceptable storylines – this lit a fire under all of us. The women in our year challenged the system, and we were heard. Our initial fight has really changed things since.
Look, I grew up in a matriarchal family. Our nanny is ‘The Don’. The women around me in drama school, and beyond, are some of the finest talents you’ll ever see. And, when it comes to the industry, they get stuck playing these side characters for men, if they’re lucky.
Plays with eight men on a stage? They’ve been done. And done. And done again. And will continue to be done. I write the parts I want to see on stage, or would jump at the chance to play, or would adore my friends to play. Not just ‘the ingénue, the wife, the crone’ – kickass characters with depth and their own point of view. Like the women I’ve grown up with – complex and funny and courageous.
Plus, as an actor, you dream of doing certain things on stage – standing in rain, breaking a window, lighting a petrol bomb – as an actor-writer hybrid, sometimes I’m like ‘here, drawing a moustache on a portrait of the queen on stage? Sure, that’d be some craic’, and write that in.
What drew you to explore The Troubles?
I’m from Newry, and my family are from South Armagh… it’s in my blood and was destined to be. To be honest, my first few plays avoided The Troubles, maybe one touched on the war lightly, from a half-formed, ceasefire baby perspective, but the main theme of that play was focused on the mental health of teenagers in the North.
One of Crocodile Fever’s main themes is oppression. Oppression of the church, oppression of men, oppression of the state – a trifecta of oppression, if you will. And I was (and still continue to be) furious with them all. Given that, The Troubles has to be the time Crocodile Fever exists in.
We’ve seen so many takes on The Troubles in the media – mainly through a male lens. The stories of women forced to empty out and dismantle their prams by the British Army, to go home and be beaten by their husband, to be reprimanded by the priest in confession the next day for ‘making him displeased’ are far, far, far too many, and so under-represented. So let’s represent them, and take the power back!
Now, this is not a ‘Troubles Play’ – I wanted to subvert that trope we see time and time again and offer a punk perspective, with a blazing sisterhood at its core. To compel us to be a bit more Bernadette Devlin.
Did you always intend to play Fianna in this production?
Oh not at all. Mehmet Ergen (a wild, bonkers genius) pitched the idea during our first meeting, and I really had to ponder it/ask manys-a-loved-love what they thought. London has burned me before.
When I was working at The Lyric Theatre, Belfast, on The Importance of Being Earnest, I asked Jimmy Fay (another wild, bonkers genius) his opinion, and he was like, ‘Oh, God, yeah, you should do it’. And that sealed it for me.
What do you hope the audiences take away after watching Crocodile Fever?
Healing? Hope? Rage? Revolution? All of the above? When it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, I was tagged online that this woman and her best friend fully sprinted down the street when it ended because they were so excited. And Edinburgh has so many cobbles, like that’s brave as hell.
Given that this new production will be watched by a London audience, I hope, I really hope, that Crocodile Fever can lift a bit of ignorance when it comes to the North and The Troubles.
How does it feel to bring this play to Arcola Theatre for its 25th anniversary?
Completely mad. And quite an honour. Mehmet Ergen is not only the Artistic Director at The Arcola, but has also directed Crocodile Fever in Turkey, in Turkish, which has been running for years. So when he approached me about bringing it to the Arcola for its 25th anniversary, I was so touched and really charged.
Crocodile Fever is, by and large, impossible to stage on paper, and is so unapologetically rebellious. Look at the world around us just now – we’re descending into fascism – censorship is all around us. So to have a play like Crocodile Fever on, in London of all places, at this particular time in history when people are being arrested for t-shirts, feels momentous and defiant and cool as hecking heck.
What’s next for you – more writing, acting – something else perhaps?
‘Don’t make me siiing’ – SNL reference for ye there. Acting is a-happening next, yes. I can’t say much more. Writing is always happening in a sense. Once you commit to writing, you can never escape it, even when you try to relax. A masseuse will be working out a knot you’ve had for years, and suddenly you realise a huge plothole. But yes, to be less philosophical, there are a number of project fingers in a number of project pies. But one thing I can be less vague about is a job that is very dear to me.
For the last few years, I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of guest lecturing at my old drama school haunt. For a couple of weeks a year, I get to guide the acting students through a writing pick-and-mix at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and watch them write their own plays, and smash it every single time.
I’ve done a lot, for sure, but it’s the most rewarding thing I do because of how brilliant they are, and how much they grow, and I cannot wait for the fresh batch of brilliance this year.
To the future! Sláinte!
