We are standing in the hallway of a building on Parnell Square. It’s a chilly night. There is the palpable buzz of excitement that usually accompanies being an audience member for a show created by ANU. The smiling woman on the ticket desk receives a notification on her phone. It’s time.
Our already small group is divided. My group is directed to make our way down the staircase leading off from the hallway and down into the basement. As we do so, an out-of-breath, excited young man apologises as he pushes through our group to run ahead. It takes a second to notice he is dressed differently to us, his fashion decidedly ‘80s. He knocks rapidly on the big metal door at the end of the staircase. It swings open. Then he, and we, are ushered into Faultline.
Faultline is based on a tumultuous period in time for the LGBT+ community. 1982 saw high profile investigations into the murders of gay men where the police used hurtful and controversial tactics to interview/interrogate over 1,500 people in our community, spreading a noxious cloud of fear from which people fled the country to escape - an exodus out of Ireland to London and other big cities where anonymity could be regained.