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Aisling Towl, Shaffer Playwright in Residence 2024-25 tell us about her new play ‘MESSIAH’ which opens at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge on 20 May. MESSIAH is directed by Trinity postgraduate James Critchley and Medieval and Modern Languages undergraduate Jacob Benhayoun is in the cast.
What is your new play about?
MESSIAH is a story about a maverick politician on the cusp of greatness, and a parliamentary assistant faced with an impossible dilemma. It’s about what makes and breaks a great leader, and about sex and power in a time of political crisis.
Where did the kernel of the idea of the play come from?
The epigraph of MESSIAH is taken from a Fidel Castro interview in Playboy magazine, 1967: ‘Power corrupts men. It makes them egotistical; it makes them selfish. Fortunately, this has never happened to me. And I don’t think it will.’
I’m interested in how much stock we place in individual, usually male leaders of otherwise collectivist movements; what kind of standards we hold them to and where this gets us. It’s a common criticism of the left that we’re not very good at populism – I’m interested in why this might be the case, and what – or rather who – might be sacrificed if we were to mirror the tactics of right wing movements that have amassed so much support in recent years.
Can you describe your play-writing process?
I can’t remember who I read comparing playwrights to sculptors, but that image really resonates with me – the chipping away at an idea until you find its shape.
What does the playwright-in-residence role at Trinity offer (that isn’t available elsewhere)?
Bluntly, it’s a year of being able to focus solely on playwriting without having to worry too much about money. Theatre – and the creative sector more widely – is incredibly difficult to survive in if you don’t have the cushion of generational wealth to fall back on.
I worked in restaurants for years and then in various policy research roles before starting at Trinity, writing in evenings and weekends and putting work on in my time off. I think I used the first month of this residency mainly to catch up on sleep.
I don’t say that to discourage anyone, it was exhausting but it made me hungrier and more resilient to the endless knockbacks that come with a career like this. I can’t really overstate the creative freedom a year-long, funded residency grants a writer – it’s been truly life changing.
To what extent has being in Cambridge / at Trinity changed you?
I grew up in London and have lived there my whole life, so I wasn’t sure how I’d adapt to living in a small city, but I’ve ended up loving it – I feel a huge sense of calm here.
Being at Trinity has allowed me to meet so many interesting people doing all sorts of different research, from volcanologists to international lawyers to historians looking at the role of art in the anti-apartheid struggle – it’s very inspiring and provides endless material!
What will you do next?
My plan after the residency is to keep putting work on in the UK and internationally. The residency has allowed me to get several projects off the ground which have been in my brain for years, so I’m excited to keep developing those and see where they go.
What is your ultimate ambition?
Apart from getting work programmed in big, traditional theatre spaces, I’m keen to do more site-specific work. I have another play called gentlemen of the jury coming on 27-29 June at the Cambridge Guildhall; it’s about the re-criminalisation of abortion and is set in a civic building, which is exactly where it’ll be on.
One of my most formative experiences at the theatre was watching Belarus Free Theatre’s Trash Cuisine in 2015, a piece about the death penalty which involves the company and audience all eating Borscht together after the show. My ultimate dream is to open some kind of theatre-canteen-hybrid where everyone eats together after the plays finish and talks about what we might do next.
