Countywide creativity: The unifying force of Fit-up
The Great Outdoors: Theatre enthusiasts take the ferry to Sherkin, one of the many remote venues for the West Cork Tit-up theatre festival.
Author looks ahead to this summer, when the West Cork Fit-up Festival will bring theatre to far-flung corners of Co Cork
Neither an idle boast nor a claim to fame — it’s just a matter of fact: Cork is undisputedly the largest county in Ireland. This landmass of 7,508 km² stretches from The Ancient East, the age-old Hiberno-Norman seat of power on the River Blackwater, all the way to the islands off the westernmost tip of Europe and along The Wild Atlantic Way.
Home to over half a million souls, County Cork represents a vast and varied landscape; from the rolling grasslands of the Golden Vale to the rocky hill farms of mid-Cork, the rugged mountainy spine along the western peninsula all the way to the seafaring communities of the islands and coastal villages. This is a landscape as diverse as the people who inhabit it.
Rural Ireland marches to the rhythm of its own drum; a delicate balance of culture, commerce and competition. Each townland a self-proclaimed kingdom, yet despite local rivalries of flag-waving triumphalism — Muintir Chorcaí are blessed with a unifying sense of common purpose. Call it spirit. Call it pride. Call it ancient tribalism gone wild — but when this rallying call is heard it galvanises communities. And just like that, disparate and competing parishes will put aside local ambitions and come together as one to further the greater good. This is the beating heart of Ireland.
Geoff Gould, the artistic director of the West Cork Fit-up Festival, has his finger firmly on the pulse of the Irish heartland. Inspired by an all but forgotten tradition from the 1940s when professional theatre companies toured the highways and byways in what became known as The Fit-ups — Geoff undertook to resurrect and breathe new life into this relic from the last century.
Few could have anticipated or even imagined the success of the phenomenon that has become the West Cork Fit-up Festival.
Anyone familiar with the practicalities of theatre production will understand how difficult it is to generate an audience even when drawing from a densely-populated urban hinterland with all the home comforts of state-of-the-art facilities. Not to mention the additional logistical problems and exponential costs associated with touring live theatre. So, realistically, when Geoff first floated the idea of producing a series of fit-it-up, knock-it-down, one-night-only performances in sparsely populated isolated communities, devoid of even the most basic theatre infrastructure, it seemed to be a romantic pipedream with little chance of success.
But undeterred, Geoff was acutely aware of his audience. Ever since bardic times, through the darkest days of our history, there has always been a welcome for the Seanchaí, the story teller, the poet, the musician at the fireside of every bothán and cottage across the county. This is precisely the rich tapestry of cultural heritage Geoff instinctively tapped into. His deep understanding of the nature of collective community and common purpose was both a catalyst and conduit for the success of the West Cork Fit-up Festival.
The birth of The West Cork Fit-up Festival was no lightning in a bottle moment, but rather the result of a lifelong dedication to the artform. Theatre runs in Geoff Gould’s DNA. In previous generations his grandfather and his father had been actively engaged in local productions around the North Cork town of Doneraile. Geoff’s own personal involvement goes back to his childhood, a passion that took root and blossomed when his father introduced him to the vibrant musical theatre scene in his hometown of Fermoy.
I first met Geoff back in the late 1990s. At that time, he was Artistic Director at The Everyman Palace Theatre and I was Writer-in Residence. My abiding memory is of his enthusiastic creative energy, his endeavour to introduce new audiences to the world of theatre, his belief that professional productions and increased audience numbers must go hand in hand — and above all his commitment to theatre practitioners. And though highly successful as a producer and director in his own right, he made the brave decision to step back from production to redefine his art practice.
In 2001, Geoff was accepted into the London Academy Of Music and Dramatic Art [LAMDA]. After qualifying from LAMDA he remained in the UK for a number of years producing, directing and touring productions. It was around that time that he and a collective of like-minded creatives including Conor Lovett, Martin Lucey, Lizzy Powell, established Blood In The Alley Theatre Company. The ‘Alley’ referred to in the company name is not, as one might suspect, inspired by some urban inner-city backstreet — but rather, it is a homage to their county credentials, specifically the ubiquitous handball alleys dotted in so many rural towns and villages around Ireland.
Blood in the Alley produced a vast body of work, and significantly the company toured extensively to UK, Europe and China. Those formative years on the road with Blood In The Alley provided invaluable expertise in the demands of touring, a skill-set that became essential in the day-to-day operations of the West Cork Fit-up Festival.
Every year since 2009, the West Cork Fit-up Festival has taken to the road through July and into August — to date they have toured as many as eighty productions to remote villages and island communities. But it would be a mistake to assume that the success of this venture is measured in quantity or endurance — the true triumph of the West Cork Fit-up Festival is found in the quality of the productions.
Year in year out, this commitment to high-end professional theatre continues to be the benchmark characteristic of the Fit-up ethos. It’s a testament to Geoff’s integrity and his deep-seated understanding of the needs of theatre practitioners that over the past decade the Fit-up Festival has featured a veritable who’s who of Irish theatre.
Top quality award-winning international acts are queuing up to slot into the Fit-up circuit while in transit to or from the international theatre festival circuit. It is nothing out of the ordinary to have a production come directly from New York to perform on an island or in an isolated village hall or marquee — For One Night Only. It has always been Geoff’s contention that an audience member on Sherkin Island is every bit as sophisticated and important as an audience member in the West End or Broadway.
We live in an era where traditional social hubs such as post offices, cafes and pubs are under threat. Some doomsayers predict the demise of the high street and village, and maybe therein lies the true value of the Fit-up tradition.
Thankfully, it’s going from strength to strength — having spent seven years focusing his creative energies in West Cork, in 2016 Geoff set up the inaugural Blackwater Valley Fit-up Theatre Festival — bringing the experience to the eastern extremity of the county. Of course, success breeds success, and 2017 saw a move beyond the boundary of Cork with the introduction of the West Waterford Fit-up Theatre Festival.
In recent years, Geoff has been mentoring and advising a number of Fit-up Festivals around the country — in Galway, Clare and Kerry. From its humble beginnings in 2009, under the stewardship of Geoff Gould Fit-up culture has been re-born and revitalised. To paraphrase the great Jacques Brel — Fit-up is alive and well and well and living in County Cork.
Keep an eye out later this summer for an award-winning production direct from New York coming to a tent near you …
