The Dublin Fringe Festival kicks off next month on Saturday, the 9th of September. As usual, the festival features a stellar line up of women-led productions, ranging from comedy, theatre and performance art.
Making their debut at this year’s Fringe, is Philomena P, a new female-led theatre company with their play ‘in heat’. Philomena P is made up of best friends Sadhbh Malin and Sinéad Gallagher who first met while attending Newpark Comprehensive School in Dublin together.
Written by Malin and produced by Gallagher, ‘in heat’ tells the story of Conor and Helen, a couple in their 20s, living together in a cramped apartment and navigating a rocky relationship. Not to mention a second pregnancy.
“It’s about being a young person in Dublin and going through a life altering experience, set against the backdrop of the housing crisis”.
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“It’s entertaining, it’s relatable, it’s funny,” says Gallagher.
“I think what our two characters go through…there is so much about their story that I think people can really see themselves in … "
Speaking about their decade long friendship which started in school Malin says: “I think our values are pretty in line, and we’ve always both been creatively inclined”.
“Also I think we both love to live our lives to the fullest, which definitely probably got us in trouble as teenagers a lot,” adds Gallagher.
After school, the friends’ lives took different paths, with Gallagher studying English and Philosophy in UCD, followed by two years in Canada and a Masters in creative management, while Malin trained as an actor in the widely acclaimed Dublin drama school The Lir Academy. Recognising how their individual skills could merge together creatively, their production company Philomena P was born.
In this episode, the pair tell Róisín Ingle about the inspiration behind their first production, how their friendship has evolved into a creative working relationship and what it’s like being a twenty-something woman living and working in Ireland today.
You can see ‘in heat’ in The New Theatre in Temple Bar Dublin from the 14th of September, as part of the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival.
Listen back to this episode in the player above or where ever you get your podcasts.
