Interview: Ois O’Donoghue, ‘HYPER’

Ahead of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, we’re chatting with a range of creatives who will be heading to the city over August to find out more about their shows. Today we’re chatting with Ois O’Donoghue about the piece, HYPER!

Can you tell us a bit about you and your career so far.

Hi There! My name is Ois O’Donoghue, I’m the writer-director, performer and arbitrator of vocal absurdity for HYPER! Along with this I am the Co-Founder of Jaxbanded Theatre who is producing the show. I'm an early career artist, and my work focuses on the exploration of the bounds of medium and genre, playing with convention in the same way that a cat plays with a ball of string. Subject wise, my work tends to focus on the things that bring us together and divide us in what seems to be a more fractured world day by day, all attacked from through a specifically Queer and Trans lens. Along with HYPER, this year I have been lucky enough to be involved heavily in two wonderful works, in directing HATE F#%K by Jodie Doyle and in writing a new piece, FREEZE, for Landmark's Theatre For One in the Cork Midsummer Festival, both of which were just fabulous experiences. Along with this I tend to be absolutely OBSESSED with going down Wikipedia Rabbit Holes while delicately consuming heaps of Carbonara.

What is your show about?

HYPER follows one night in the shoes of Saoirse as she attempts to come back to the musical stage having recently transitioned, all with the support of her lovely, but utterly useless best friend and bandmate Conall. Throughout the play Saoirse grapples with how to alter her musical style to reflect who she is now at this moment of enormous change. Though this piece is a two hander it’s played by 3 actors, with two different performers both playing Saoirse, one on stage and one through a vocal modulator (Think Cher singing I believe). With this, we hope to capture the often tumultuous relationship trans people have with the sounds of our own voices in a time where we need to use them the most. It is a rip-roaring and unabashedly Queer play about identity, and what exactly it means to be Trans today. At a time when as trans people have begun to emerge from the shadows, and find community, while simultaneously being one of the popular punching bags of our time, HYPER attempts to build a bridge between all people, cis and trans alike. It exists as an act of rebellious, riotous joy for the trans community that also seeks to break bread in communion with our cis siblings.

What was the inspiration for Hyper and what’s the development process been to get to this stage?

HYPER is most directly inspired by my own experience of transitioning as well as my obsession with the musical genre of Hyperpop. Initially, I remember being inspired to write the piece by an interview I read with Laura Les from the seminal Hyperpop group 100 Gecs. In it she described her experience of using the vocal modulation present throughout much of hyperpop as a means of dealing with the dysphoria she experienced while singing early in her transition. She spoke of how, on her new record, she hoped to lessen the use of this modulation, not because she didn't like it, but rather because, in her own words, she was tired of being a little baby. I found this idea of facing into the dysphoria you experienced head on through music absolutely captivating, especially when I myself was experiencing similar dysphoria regarding my own voice. I think the prevalence of Trans people within the hyperpop genre also likely speaks to this. HYPER than developed alongside my own transition in many ways, with the initial drafts of the piece absolutely reflecting the fear, the manicness and the honest pure joy that were banging around in my head at the time. Since than, the piece has seen many work in progress performances along the way where we've learned massive amounts through the feedback we've received and I hope through it we've managed to create a work that reflects a, potentially, slightly more refined version of those early manic impulses.

What made you want to take Hyper to the Fringe?

 I've been lucky to attend the Fringe multiple times in a number of capacities, Flyerer, Producer and even very briefly as a magician's assistant but I have never brought my own work to the festival. What made me think now was the right time to bring HYPER to the festival, was the urgent need I feel with which the story needs to be told on a wider scale. We exist at an odd time as Trans people. We're more visible than ever before, which on one hand has led to the formation of strong communities which are larger than ever, but on the other, our visibility is largely down the our current status as one of the more popular political footballs of the day. With HYPER, we hope to create a work that is a formidable empathy machine. A play that, for Trans people, acts as a small part of the tapestry of a hard fought for battle for Trans joy and, for Cis people, acts an as opportunity for them to truly listen to a Trans person speak, rather than just hear the stories that are told about us. Ultimately, I think Fringe is a truly magical place, a place where a populace and an international community come together with the simple interest of celebrating art. This is a world that I believe HYPER must exist within.

What’s your top tip for anybody heading for Edinburgh this summer besides seeing Hyper?

My absolute favourite thing to do at the Fringe, is to open the Fringe App, and sort by what's next. If you can feasibly make the next show from where you are, drop what you're doing and go. Don't read anything about what you're going to. The joy of Fringe is the joy of random discovery. So go discover!

Why should people book Hyper?

People should book HYPER if they want to experience a fast paced show, that'll make them giggle, make them question, and, my own personal evil desire, make them cry. It is principally a show about celebrating the Trans joy that doesn't come easily, the joy that you really do have to battle for. And if you don't quite know what that means, I implore you to go doubly so.

When and where can people see the show? (Storytelling can complete this one for you, unless you want to put a wee spin on it)

HYPER is on from the 1st - 26th August in Summerhall, in *hold for laughter* The Former Womens Locker Room everyday at 8:15pm, except for the 12th and the 19th. We can't wait to see you there!