Here’s to Lórcan at you, kid
“Since identifying as non-binary I always struggle getting in to characters like Jim and not just because I had to cut off my lovely curls!”
Lórcan Strain, who plays Jim in ‘The Glass Menagerie’ currently running at The Everyman, is an actor, drag artist, and writer from county Donegal.
A big fan of Leeside and its audiences, multi-talented Lórcan says the show is going very well so far and that this may well be the most confident they have ever been on stage.
“Emma Jordan, our director, is to thank for that and of course my castmates Natalie Radnall Quirke, Darragh Feehly and Chloe O'Reilly,” says Lórcan.
“We bonded on day one, so we have this incredible trust for each other, I know they will catch me if I fall. The whole creative team are amazing and have worked so hard to make everything so tight and polished. I love being back in Cork because the audiences are so appreciative. It’s not very often a Tennessee Williams play is performed here, so they seem to be as excited as we are. They are honest and love to buy you a wee pint of Murphy’s after!”
Considered to be Williams’ most autobiographical work, ‘The Glass Menagerie’ tells the story of Tom, a young man in his early 20s, his mother Amanda, and his older sister Laura who is painfully shy and spends all her time polishing and arranging her collection of little glass animals.
Enter Jim (Lórcan), the gentleman caller Laura’s mother has craved for her daughter.
“I am interested in Jim’s fall from being the most popular boy in school to working an average job in a warehouse, even after being voted most likely to succeed,” explains Lórcan.
They continue: “Because even though it seems like he has ‘failed’, he remains an optimist. He is so positive that it comes across as arrogance and I think he isn’t just trying to convince the other characters, he is also trying to convince himself that better days are ahead. He doesn’t seem to have his own opinion on anything and contradicts lots of what he says. It’s as if everything he says is regurgitated from someone wiser than him. He is a lost puppy with lots of ambitions.
“He is a man of his time, so he is inherently misogynistic, even if he doesn’t realise it. He mansplains all the time, so it was difficult to believe that his words and actions all come from a place of kindness.”
Working on such a celebrated play has been challenging for Lórcan but it’s one they are more than a match for, and within that challenge they have found unavoidable inspiration.
Lórcan says: “It is certainly challenging, every punctuation has to be met, but it feels amazing to be tackling such a beautiful text. There is always pressure when performing a classic play. You can’t help but imagine how other actors would have played the role. These are characters that most people already know, so you really try to put your own stamp on it and I think letting that go and trusting the work allows for it to happen organically.
“The play is so beautifully written, it’s impossible not to be inspired. It has taken up my whole life at the moment, so I haven’t actually had time to pick up a pen myself, I’m too busy dissecting every part of ‘The Glass Menagerie’. What really does inspire me is the fact that it was written by a gay person and was way ahead of its time. Even when it was less safe to be homosexual, we were still pushing boundaries.”
Asked what kinds of roles they are most drawn to, Lórcan says the choice is usually not the actor’s to make, but that they hope to do more roles that they can directly relate to in the future.
“As actors, we don’t usually get a choice. It comes down to how you look mostly and I somehow keep getting cast as these misogynistic men. I have that friendly face that’s borderline creepy,” laughs Lórcan.
“I always say that my dream role hasn’t been written. I would love to play someone that represents me as a person – a non-binary, country queerdo trying to navigate their way through a hetero normative world,” they add.
Lórcan describes their drag act, known as MarianMarythe6th Confirmation name Jane, as a sexy virgin riddled with Catholic guilt and herpes.
“She is Ireland’s number one eucharistic minister, travelling the country to serve the Body ody ody of Christ!” explains Lórcan.
“My act blends a unique style of music and comedy with a political twist, exploring what it means to be Irish. I’m bringing my first solo show that I’ve written, ‘Songs of Theys’ to the Chapel Royal, Dublin as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival from the 19-24 September. In October I’ll be going on tour with a musical called ‘Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry’. That will take me right up to Christmas which I’m spending at home in Donegal.”
‘The Glass Menagerie’ runs until 26 August every day excluding Sundays and Mondays.
A post show talk will take place on 15 August. Tickets from €19. For booking and more information, visit everymancork.com.