Molly O'Cathain Residency
I am a Set and Costume designer based in Dublin (with Swedish roots). I work across theatre, dance, opera and occasionally film, music video or exhibition. I am interested in contemporary adaptations, new writing and devised work. I like to collaborate on vibrant, expressionistic work, using colour, form and object as visual metaphor and dramaturgy, rather than (or as well as) as backdrop or decoration.
I'm using my residency to explore design-led performance creation, exploring costume or wearable art as the prompt of text for performance. I am collaborating with a costume maker, Sorcha Flynn and speaking to lighting designer Sinead Wallace remotely to develop costumes which I then hope to invite sound designers and performers to react to once we can safely do so.
I have also spent much of this spring collaborating with other dance artists creating work, Roby Byrne and Rachel Ní Bhraonain on Glimmer and Sibéal Davitt on her piece Minseach, attempting to deep-dive into a period of broad research on a costume and the body in collaboration and movement. I am using the residency to work slower, and a less immediately goal/output orientated way towards developing a greater understanding of how I want to create dance costumes.
Molly O'Cathain holds a first class honours degree in Drama and Theatre Studies from Trinity College, Dublin and participated in the Rough Magic SEEDs Artist Development program 2016-2017. She was the Resident Design Assistant at The National Theatre (UK) 2019-2020. Molly is a co-founder of devising company MALAPROP theatre and the designer on all of their works to date.
Previous Set and Costume Designs include: The Playboy of The Western World (Dublin Theatre Festival/The Gaiety Theatre); It Was Easy (in the end) (The Abbey Theatre); Ask Too Much of Me, La Liberazione di Ruggiero and A Holy Show (The Peacock Theatre); Serious Money and The Ash Fire (The Lir); Mr Burns (Rough Magic).
Associate and assistant design credits include The Snapper (Paul Wills/The Gate (Dublin)) Road, (Chloe Lamford/Royal Court), The Ocean at The End of The Lane (Fly Davis/National Theatre) and The Welkin (Bunny Christie/National Theatre).
Image above by Ste Murray