We had a chat with Director of Harder, Faster , More : Tracy Martin

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and where your interest in theatre came from?
I’ve always been fascinated with show business, I’ve no idea where it came from, I don’t come from a ‘theatrical family’ or anything. That fascination along with being addicted to people watching pushed me towards telling stories I guess. I’ve done every job possible in theatre – prop making, costume and set design and making, stage managing, costume maintenance; anything that would get me near a stage to watch actors hone their craft. I love actors and love being bowled away by the power of live performance. There’s really nothing like it.

What’s the first hook that gets a new play started for you? Is it an image, a theme, a character?
Each of my plays have come from different themes. With ‘Wrapped’, which played in the Civic two years ago, I wanted to present two young women who weren’t necessarily just into fellas or getting a husband. With my last play ‘COAST’ I wanted to present people who were under extreme pressure. This was mirrored in my personal life where my father who has alzheimers dementia was still at home and we were finding it increasingly difficult to nurse him. He’s in a home now and doing amazingly so right now I feel like writing a comedy! With ‘Harder Faster More’ I wanted to look at how women are portrayed in the media and in pornography. I was at a talk where a woman who had worked as a prostitute was saying she can practically pinpoint the time when hard core pornography became widely available because the requests she started getting completely changed…and not for the better.

What do you enjoy most about your career?
Having creative people work on my writing is absolutely thrilling and makes me feel very lucky.

Who were/are the biggest inspirations for your career?
It’s a mixture between Donal O’Kellys production of ‘Catalpa’ and all of the drag queen performances in The George.

Can you tell us a little bit about Harder, Faster, More?
First and foremost it is an entertaining show with lots of laughs along with a lot of pathos. It’s seven intertwined stories of womens phone conversations as they discuss everything from finding out their husband has had an affair to a sex chat line worker mixing up calls between a customer and her own mother. It is mainly about how we are all complicit in the sexualisation of women from the decisions costume designers are made when dressing female tv actors to how porn actresses are treated on set.

What goes through your mind when you see your writing performed for the first time?
My main thing is I wonder how my mother will feel watching it so I try and see it through her eyes. She’s a great Mam though and is always delighted after watching a performance. I end up apologising for bad language but she doesn’t care. Still it’s weird when there is a lot of sex talk on stage; she’s well able though, turns out I’m the prude!

What projects are you working on now?
We just finished working on a new play called ‘Listen’ which is about people who hear voices and how they’re treated in the psychiatric services. We hope to get that onto stages in 2018.

What do hope audiences will take from watching Harder, Faster, More?
I hope they get thought provoking entertainment and are dying to discuss the topics in the bar afterwards.

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HARDER FASTER MORE, Monday 15th – Wednesday 17th May 8pm
BOOK TICKETS HERE